Bon Iver – “THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS” & “AWARDS SEASON”

Bon Iver was so present during pandemic times, largely via Justin Vernon’s collaborations with Taylor Swift, that I had a hard time believing it’s been more than five years since i,i. But that’s where we find ourselves with today’s release of the SABLE, EP.

Lead single “S P E Y S I D E” suggested the three-song collection would be a reboot of sorts for Bon Iver, tapping back into the celestial cabin-folk vibes of debut album For Emma, Forever Ago, but that’s not entirely right. Despite its relatively pared-down sound, opener “THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS” is more reminiscent of the windswept epics from Bon Iver, Bon Iver, especially with Greg Leisz’s pedal steel drifting through the mix. “I get caught looking in the mirror on the regular,” Vernon sings in his lower register. “What I see there resembles some competitor/ I see things behind things behind things/ And there are rings within rings within rings.”

Leisz shows up again on closing track “AWARDS SEASON,” as does Vernon’s hearty non-falsetto singing voice. This one’s a bit more latter-day Bon Iver to me; it’s not refracted and electronic, but it gives me the same vibes as a deep cut from 22, A Million despite using the For Emma palette. Vernon’s final words: “Why do things gotta change?/ We were on our way/ To be best to face/ All that comes in gray/ It’s so hard to explain/ And the facts are strange/ And you know what will stay?/ Everything we’ve made.”

All three songs will have matching music videos by Erinn Springer in the morning. Until then, check out an audio-only stream of the EP. And for more commentary on the project, check out Vernon’s New Yorker interview from this week, which gets quite philosophical. (I liked this bit about the band name: “But I can’t go to that well over and over again. It has to be something sacred—it has to renew. I come back to the name of the band. It’s a good band name, a good project name, because it’s like — good death, good winter. Things need rest. A life needs to rest at some point.”)

SABLE, is out now on Jagjaguwar.