Tender and acoustic, "S P E Y S I D E" finds Justin Vernon plumbing the emotional depths of his own turmoil with brutal honesty. The song is a raw self-examination where he comes to grips with his own role in the slow-motion disaster that was his relationship. By the end of the track, you can feel him finally pulling back the curtain on the self-sabotaging decisions that led to it all going up in flames.
Introducing "S P E Y S I D E" during a concert at London's O2 Arena, Vernon said, "When I made this song, I was feeling a lot of guilt, which is an important emotion to have. It's also an important emotion to put yourself past. The day I wrote it, I got a little drunk on rum and sent it to a couple of friends."
But maybe you can still make a man from me
Here on Speyside quay
The region of Speyside, tucked away in northeastern Scotland and famed for its whisky, serves as a metaphor. Vernon has admitted he was inebriated when he wrote the song, and the mention of "Speyside quay" seems a playful wink to being surrounded by whisky - perhaps as he tried to drown his guilt in a bottle.
Vernon co-wrote "S P E Y S I D E" with:
Ryan Olsen of the Minneapolis band Poliça.
Vernon's longtime collaborator BJ Burton, whose resumé boasts work with the likes of Eminem ("
Fall"), Taylor Swift ("
Closure") and Kacey Musgraves ("
Justified").
"S P E Y S I D E" opens with a 30-second acoustic guitar intro, a prelude to Vernon's signature falsetto, which arrives high, breathy, and echoing as though it's coming from somewhere deep inside. The arrangement is minimalist: Vernon on vocals and guitar, Bon Iver's Rob Moose adding melancholy on viola, and DJ/producer Jim-E Stack weaving in production that never intrudes. The stripped-back approach leaves all the vulnerability in Vernon's voice exposed for us to hear.
Erinn Springer, a fellow Wisconsinite and visual artist, directed the black-and-white video that accompanies the song, blending images of Vernon with sweeping shots of rolling waves, storm clouds, and a lonely barn.
Released on September 20, 2024, "S P E Y S I D E" marks the first Bon Iver single since 2020's "AUATC" and serves as the lead track from the Sable EP. According to Vernon, the EP was written to help him "unpack the darkness, pressure, and anxiety" that overwhelmed him during one of the hardest periods of his life.
The EP's title is telling, referencing a shade so dark it's nearly black, symbolic of the "guilt, anguish, and turmoil" Vernon explores across the three tracks.
Justin Vernon told Uncut magazine his songs often feel as if they arrive on the wind. One day the word "sable" drifted into his mind.
"I was like, what does that even mean?" he recalled. When he looked it up -"darkness, the darkest black" - the definition hit him with a kind of grim recognition. "And I was like… yiiip."
For Vernon, it became the perfect shorthand for the past 17 years of his life: "This darkness. This pressing the bruise."
From there, the word grew into a creative compass. "The word comes, then you meditate on it for months while you're working on the music. Eventually, if you stare long enough at a word, you start to understand it. You start putting songs underneath that banner, and gradually you figure out what it's trying to mean."
