In late 2024, five years on from the release of his fourth album, Bon Iver announced the release of a three-track EP: SABLE.
For a moment, it appeared as if Justin Vernon was revisiting his fabled cabin in the woods, making a full-circle return to the bare-bones, crestfallen indie-folk of For Emma, Forever Ago. Something was off, though: S P E Y S I D E’s self-serious, grayscale music video saw Vernon cosplaying as a po-faced cowboy, swallowed up by gloomy skies and crashing waves. If it scanned as self-parody, that’s because it kinda was.
