On SABLE, fABLE, it’s cool to hear Bon Iver having fun at last - 4/5 Justin Vernon’s version of ‘radiant pop music’ is to brighten his earthy, acoustic landscapes with synths and drum pads

Bon Iver were at the vanguard of the indie-folk boom of the late 2000s, just as the world economy turned to bust. That was when Fleet Foxes’s beatific roots-rock went platinum, Mumford & Sons started jangling their infernal banjos, and music writers toggled between the use of “rambunctious” and “hymnal” in effusive reviews.