It's officially Bon Iver Spring
+ 5 new songs you need.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Bon Iver — SABLE, fABLE
You thought I wasn’t going to spotlight one of the year’s best albums just because I was out last week? When I was in full Bon Iver mode—rolling down winding country roads, eating locally sourced trout, wearing beanies and looking forlorn? When there are things behind things behind things and rings within rings within rings? FOH.
In theory, I don’t love combining the sullen and sparse SABLE with the much brighter and elaborate fABLE. I have to be selective about which side I’m in the mood for. The album notes say SABLE “the prologue, a controlled burn clearing the way for new possibilities. fABLE is the book. Stories of introduction and celebration.” Sure. What matters is it’s some of the best music of Justin Vernon’s career.
fABLE is love and brightness, new beginnings marked by delight but also patience and commitment. Bon Iver’s music has always had moments of joy catharsis, despite the sad boy narrative, but here they are as straightforward as ever. That leads to some clunky lyrics, but in an endearing way with which you need to sing along out loud. The production is all polished and often shimmering heartland pop-rock—Bruce Hornsby meets Social Experiment gospel.
Bon Iver, Bon Iver is regarded as the “spring album,” correlating the band’s discography to different seasons, but SABLE, fABLE better captures the feeling of transition. It’s more literal, but this time there’s more hope than ever.
Everything is peaceful love.
5 NEW SONGS
Bb trickz — “Super”
This is so smooth it’s got me contemplating getting Duolingo again, and the video is just as good.
Jim Legxacy — “stick”
I liked Jim Legxacy’s last project, 2023’s homeless n***a pop music, but between “father” and this it feels like he’s leveled up.
Lana Del Rey — “Henry, come on”
Is it too early to say this is a top five Lana song?
LAZER DIM 700 — “spawn”
Never heard a beat before that sounded like it was running out of battery. LAZER DIM might be the most prolific rapper right now—he dropped 6 videos in 6 days this week—and sometimes what should definitely not work just does.
Ken Carson — “Thx”
There aren’t many Ken Carson songs you could describe as “heartwarming.” But on “Thx,” a standout from his new album More Chaos, he thanks his mom and pops (and his drugs and his plug) for making him who he is.
OLD MUSIC
August 16, 1969. Sly & The Family Stone took the stage at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday at Woodstock, between Janis Joplin and the Who, and turned in arguably the festival’s best set. As Jerry Martini, Family Stone saxophonist, recalls in the Sly Lives! doc from January: “Right before we went on, Sly, he poured out a pile of blow, with a pinch of mescaline. We all got our dollar bills and hit it.”
What’s going on?
‘Tissi Drama: Last month, I called Johnny Novo’s rotisserie chicken reviews one of the year’s great content series. The Infatuation LA has since put out their own rankings and a lot of people are protecting JNov’s honor.
NYC bars are closing earlier and it’s not just because young people aren’t drinking as much. 4 a.m. liquor licenses are getting harder to obtain, and bar owners are split on whether the extra two hours past 2 a.m. are worth it. We can’t let this happen:
It’s harder than ever to get a tee time. The pandemic golf boom is still going strong. The sport’s reach is up 30% since 2016, and “nearly 1.5 million more people than the prepandemic average — 3.4 million total — played golf for the first time in 2023,” mostly young adults. The percentage of female golfers under 18 more than doubled since 2000.
Goodbye:
We need an official Good Stuff playlist