Bon Iver Returns With the Stark ‘Sable,’ His First New Project in Five Years: EP Review

Back in 2007, Bon Iver’s debut album, “For Emma, Forever Ago,” was just about the least likely breakthrough album imaginable: Written in a remote cabin during a Wisconsin winter, in self-imposed solitude after the breakup of both his band and a romantic relationship, its stark sound evoked the setting and spirit of its creation, and introduced the world to Justin Vernon’s reedy voice and haunting songs.

Of course, that album was just the beginning, and Vernon’s music got a lot bigger and more elaborate over the following years, while retaining the melancholy at its core. He collaborated with Kanye West and Taylor Swift, toured regularly and launched a festival in his beloved Wisconsin. It all seemed a long way from that solitary winter in the cabin.

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But apparently it wasn’t. According to the press materials that accompany the stripped-down three-song “Sable” EP, his first new release since “i,i” five years ago, “This trio of songs represents an unburdening from one of the most trying eras in Vernon’s life. … Being Bon Iver meant playing a part, and intentionally leaning into that role meant frequently pressing hard on a metaphorical bruise. [Vernon] developed literal physical symptoms from deep anxiety and constant pressure. At the end of his rope, maybe done with music, and thinking increasingly about the process of healing, he finally found the time to unpack years of built-up darkness just as the lockdown began.”

“Sable” is just over a dozen minutes long, but contains more substance and variety than many much longer albums. It’s as stripped down and raw as anything he’s done since that galvanizing first album 17 years ago, but the spare sound is deceptively lush: “Things Behind Things Behind Things” seems like a folk song, led by a gently strummed autumnal 12-string acoustic, but his voice is multitracked many times, and hazy pedal steel guitar and production add a heft that’s only evident with a close listen.

From there, “Sable” gets even more spare. “Speyside” is just Vernon’s voice and acoustic guitar with a light violin embellishment, carried along by its arresting melody and downcast lyrics: “I know now that I can’t make good/ How I wish I could/ Go back and put me where you stood/ Nothing’s really something, now the whole thing’s soot.”

The closing “Awards Season” starts off a capella, with the arrangement gradually building into a lush instrumental section before coming back down, closing with Vernon’s voice and ending on an unexpectedly up note: “And if it’s all the same/ Just take my hand and place it on your blame/ And let it wash away/ With you I will remain.”

For such a low-key release, “Sable” is getting a disproportionately big rollout, with a video for each song, a big New Yorker profile — and even more incongruously, a duet with Charli XCX on her party-starting “Brat” remix album released last week. But it’s described as a “reset and a reintroduction,” and hopefully the first step in another vital new era from Bon Iver.