On the Stereo: Bon Iver returns, Andrew Bird and Madison Cunningham cover Buckingham Nicks
Plus, Jerry Cantrell, farewell albums from MC5 and Japandroids, an expanded version of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' Long After Dark, Fantastic Negrito.
Bon Iver—SABLE, [2024]
SABLE,, the first new music from Bon Iver in half a decade, feels like an extended exhale: a welcome release of tension that's been bottled up inside for far too long. Like a breath, it is quiet and fleeting, lasting a little over twelve minutes—a length that falls somewhere between a single and EP. Even at this short length, SABLE, feels complete, a full expression of thought with a narrative bent that finds Justin Vernon stepping out of darkness into a glimmer of light. Abandoning the elliptical electronic arrangements he's pursued for roughly a decade, Vernon opts for a varnished intimacy. As direct and immediate as the EP is, there's a subtle veneer to the production, with Vernon accentuating his keening pleas with empathetic pedal steel, echo, and the occasional swell of horns. These tonal colors mitigate the loneliness but it's Vernon's open-hearted vocals on the unadorned closing of "AWARDS SEASON" that makes the sad introspection of SABLE, feel comforting, not bleak.
Andrew Bird & Madison Cunningham—Cunningham Bird [2024]
It's an ingenious idea for an album. With Buckingham Nicks, the debut album from future Fleetwood Mac members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, still out of print fifty years after its 1973 release, why not get the songs back in circulation by offering a fresh recording of the album in its entirety? That's precisely what Cunningham Bird is, a song-by-song cover of Buckingham Nicks by neo-folk artists Andrew Bird and Madison Cunningham. Thankfully, the pair opt for a reinterpretation, not a replication; there is no attempt to mimic the slick soft-rock producer Keith Olsen, Buckingham and Nicks conjured for Buckingham Nicks, then perfected on 1975's Fleetwood Mac. Bird and Cunningham adhere to their sweet, stately folk, placing melodies and harmonies at the forefront, decorating the background with plucked and sighing strings, ghostly vocal support, and other impressionistic studio effects. The quieter touch intentionally dilutes the pop snap Buckingham Nicks displayed, often to appealing effect. The bright punch of Nicks's "Crying in the Night" is softened, making it easier to concentrate on its melodic contours; the baroque, ringing hooks of "Without a Stand On" are turned into a tender sway in a rendition that runs twice as long as the original; the galloping "Don't Let Me Down Again" diminishes its backbeat but retains urgency. Throughout Cunningham Bird, the pair make smart, surprising choices—the closing "Frozen Love" is transformed from a showcase for Buckingham's guitar into an elegiac epilogue—that highlights their inventiveness as musicians while still keeping focus on the songwriting of Nicks and Buckingham.
(For those curious about Buckingham Nicks, it can indeed be found on YouTube, at least of this writing.)
Jerry Cantrell—I Want Blood [2024]
It can be difficult to delineate the differences between Jerry Cantrell solo albums and Alice in Chains records, particularly for those who are admirers, not obsessives, of the band. I Want Blood—the second solo album Cantrell has released since Rainier Fog, the strong 2018 album from AIC—effectively is the darker counterpoint to 2021's Brighten, a hard and heavy record that trades upon many of the signatures of his main band. There are plenty of minor-key drones in the power chords and vocal harmonies, rumbling riffs, and dropped tunings, all tied together with a sense of roiling menace that never quite boils over. For all its intended heaviness, the album does have some light on its fringes. The power ballads feel open, even sweet—the expanded soundscape on "Afterglow" hints at the cavernous AOR ballads from the late '80s—and there's a professionalism to the proceedings that prevents the record from sounding as sludgy as it wants to be. That pro touch is also an attribute. Cantrell shifts moods and changes color within the songs and also makes sure that I Want Blood clocks in at a tight 45 minutes, a succinct length that helps the album from getting too moody or ponderous.
MC5—Heavy Lifting [2024]
A recurring theme in MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock's Most Revolutionary Band—an excellent bio by Brad Tolinski, Jaan Uhelszki, and Ben Edmonds that's just been published; I reviewed it in the new issue of Mojo Magazine, on newsstands now!—is how many members of the band often wished they could go back to where they started: to be nothing more than a hard rock band that took no prisoners. The first album to be credited to the MC5 since 1971's High Time, Heavy Lifting is kind of that,