Bon Iver (the band) and especially Justin Vernon (her head and mastermind) were never completely gone: concerts, features (with Charli XCX, Taylor Swift, Zach Bryan), singles with political announcement to collect donations, appearances with Kamala Harris. Only a new album didn’t seem in sight. Until last autumn the EP “Sable” came. With songs like “Speyside” it was not only in the sound, but also thematically a revival of the long mythical debut album for Emma, Forever AGO from 2007.
It is about a lost love, the sound is reduced to the experimental, chamber pop and post rock to the essentials as in the hypnotically beautiful “Awards Season”. But a broken heart was only half the story of how it turns out now, because we learn how to proceed in the title after the comma: full of love, yes, even hope and healing.
So it sounds at least on the radiant “Everything is Peaceful Love”, which was solely the honor rescue of the soft rock genre-if there were not the other songs: “Walk Home” with its distorted vocals, the dreamy duet “If only I Could Wait” with Danielle Haim or the tender “there’s a rhythm”. While all the world in the world has been trying to copy Bon Iver since 2007, Justin Vernon has now reached completely different spheres. How good that he is back.
You can find out which albums were still published in April 2025 via our monthly publication list.