Justin Vernon Auditions Bon Iver's Replacement In New Video For "Day One" (feat. Dijon & Flock of Dimes)

WATCH

Cristin Milioti, Jacob Elordi, St. Vincent's Annie Clark, Flock of Dimes' Jenn Wasner, Dijon & Dozens More Answer The Open Casting Call

In the new music video for "Day One" (feat. Dijon & Flock of Dimes), out today, Bon Iver announces his "retirement," and Justin Vernon auditions his replacement. With beards and beanies in abundance, dozens of hopefuls answer an open casting call, including Cristin Milioti, Jacob Elordi, St. Vincent's Annie Clark, Flock of Dimes' Jenn Wasner, Dijon, Justin Vernon himself, and many more. From children to elders, sporting face paint to roller skates, each performer brings their own flavor to the song, and the search remains too close to call. 

Watch the audition tapes:

HERE

One of the many standout moments from Bon Iver's 2025 album, SABLE, fABLE(Jagjaguwar), "Day One" follows the video for "From" — in which Justin Vernon begins a dual career as both a divorce attorney and limousine driver — as well as John Wilson's video for "Everything Is Peaceful Love," a long walk taken from Wisconsin to California in "There's A Rhythmn," trail cam streams for "Walk Home" and "If Only I Could Wait" (feat. Danielle Haim), Erinn Springer's SABLE, triptych, and lyric videos for every album track.

SABLE, fABLE marks Bon Iver's first new album in six years, and with it comes a love story set to lush, radiant music. While the record begins with the vulnerable unburdening of SABLE, those three songs seamlessly give way to a nine-track saga in which one person becomes two, darkness turns to salmon-colored beauty, and sadness transforms to unbridled joy. Where SABLE, is a sparse and solitary reckoning with a pain that long-defined the past, fABLE looks towards a vibrant future filled with light, purpose and possibility. Produced by Justin Vernon and Jim-E Stack, engineered by Ian Gold and Justin Vernon, mastered by Heba Kadry, and primarily recorded at Vernon's April Base in Wisconsin, SABLE, fABLE includes contributions from BJ Burton, Carter Faith, Cory Henry, Danielle Haim, Dijon, Greg Leisz, Jacob Collier, Jenn Wasner (Flock of Dimes), Michael Gordon (Mk.gee), Rob Moose, Tobias Jesso Jr. and more.

In recent weeks, Justin Vernon and album producer Jim-E Stack discussed the making of "Day One" live at Los Angeles' Palace Theatre for a special event with Song Exploder host Hrishikesh Hirway, while Vernon dove deeper into the record during appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, On Being with Krista Tippett, Zane Lowe, How Long Gone, Track Star, Handsome, BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6 Music, as well as interviews with The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian and Blackbird Spyplane.

Praise For SABLE, fABLE

"What you notice right away on SABLE, fABLE is its directness, its brightness and, in some places, its lust. Justin Vernon is singing more directly than ever before, and the production captures hope, thrills and a kind of unselfconscious exultation…a joyful and plainly accessible celebration of romantic possibility"

The New York Times

"An ideal balance between experimentalism and accessibility...SABLE, fABLE is the fifth excellent Bon Iver album in a row, and the project’s influence continues to spread"

Wall Street Journal

"A man at his most hopeful and open, palms upturned, ready and willing to come up for air...Vernon is ready to break the murky cycle of sadness and heartbreak, and to walk into the light"

Rolling Stone

"Joyful and immediate, as Vernon rhapsodizes about rebirth and romance in ways that would have seemed impossible even a few months ago. It is a genuinely surprising pop and soul record from an artist who has spent half a lifetime searching for new modes of expression"

Pitchfork

"It's a reminder that we have the right to joy. We have a right to experience happiness. We only get one life, and if you are feeling enveloped by love in times that are trying, good for you! Spread it around"

NPR Music

"Intimate performances, subtle nuances, passionate vocals, memorable refrains…one of Justin's most beautiful and straightforward projects ever"

The Needle Drop 

"American music old as dirt, updated into gnarly new contortions for our touchscreen future…So much is happening on every track, ideas and inspirations careening in brilliant bursts of sonic choreography. The arrangements feel like high-tech magic tricks but also, somehow, earnest human outpourings. It’s a joy to listen to, and hopefully Vernon is now sharing in that joy"

Stereogum 

"A stylistically sprawling but surprisingly cohesive album, SABLE, fABLE contains nearly all of Bon Iver’s multitudes"

Variety 

"The album does indeed radiate a new type of warmth for the singer-songwriter, whose recent collaborations with Taylor Swift have expanded his profile but whose joy is captured here in quiet, contained bursts"

Billboard 

"The new Bon Iver album is one of their best…With SABLE, fABLE, the feeling that he is more comfortable in his own skin than he's been, maybe ever, in the Bon Iver guise is palpable"

UPROXX

"Bon Iver is back with what seems to be a smile on his face. For SABLE, fABLE – the first Bon Iver album in almost six years – Justin Vernon seeks to reject not only sadness but the notion that Bon Iver can only make music rooted in sadness"

HYPEBEAST

"Justin Vernon is fully on his Hornsby shit on his new album SABLE, fABLE, and 'There's A Rhythmn' is an indisputable highlight, a gorgeously raw R&B track that charts heartbreak and joy as two inseparable forces"

PAPER

"After almost two decades, the artist is finally letting himself be known...If this truly is the last we hear of Bon Iver, Vernon is closing the book on a well-earned happy ending—one fans will likely want to read until they know the whole story by heart"

AV Club

"After foregoing the sad troubadour parable, Justin Vernon's band is the poppiest they've ever been on their double-disc fifth album full of uncharacteristically clear songwriting and unfounded vocal collaborations"

Paste 

"Beautiful, nourishing, and inspiring. R&B and soul have as much presence as folk and folktronica, and Vernon's distinct falsetto has never sounded clearer, making the journey to emotional clarity all the more delicate and profound"

Consequence 

"Some of the most joyous music of his career...If Bon Iver began with Vernon, at a low point of his life, grappling with anxiety and depression, SABLE, fABLE finally sees him make it through the other side of that emotional journey, to end up at a place of satisfaction, of assurance, of happiness"

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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