Monthly Archives: February 2011

Sam Beam, better known by his stage name Iron & Wine, has become closely associated with the soft folk of his early recordings. But Beam has been trying to shed the image of the bedroom-pop troubadour. The surprisingly gradual process started in 2005 with electric guitars on the Woman King EP. He also broadened his scope that year on In the Reins, a collaboration with alt-country band Calexico. He continued experimenting with new rhythms and sounds on 2007’s almost-psychedelic The Shepherd’s Dog.

Beam’s latest, Kiss Each Other Clean, completes the transformation. The hushed whispering has been replaced with reverb-laden vocals. The soft acoustic picking has been replaced with electric guitars. There are still a few things for Iron & Wine purists to cling to – like “Godless Brother in Love” and “Tree by the River,” but even those features lush arrangements and harmonies.

Kiss Each Other Clean comes together largely as a pop album, inspired heavily by ’70s radio hits of all sorts. “Big Burned Hand” bursts into a bleating saxophone riff. The song continues with soft funk that falls somewhere between Led Zeppelin’s “Fool in the Rain” and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.” The backing vocals on “Half Moon” mimic Fleetwood Mac, while the ones “Glad Man Singing” come closer to the choir on Stephen Stills’ “Love the One You’re With.” Beam and his collaborators experiment wildly but tie it together perfectly with warm sounds and harmonies. The opener “Walking far From Home” is the perfect example. It features almost-distorted vocals, wailing harmonies, atmospheric background noise and fuzzed-out synths, all disguised as a pop song.

Beam also continues his exploration of African music and folklore from The Shepherd’s Dog. “Rabbit Will Run” uses kalimbas and thundering drums to complement lyrical images of rabbits and lions. The first half of the seven-minute closer, “Your Fake Name Is Good Enough for Me,” also borrows rhythms and guitars from Africa and features the album’s heaviest horns. The saxophones keep a steady pulse behind the vocals but also dive into Coltrane-styled solos. Eventually it breaks down with the varied repetition of the line “We will become,” before spiraling to a close with chaotic saxophones and guitars.

Somehow, despite the incredible array of new sounds, Kiss Each Other Clean is still familiar. It sounds slightly different, but it feels like Iron & Wine. Beam seems to be tracing the steps of Paul Simon. Both artists began their careers with soft folk and gradually expanded and experimented. Kiss Each Other Clean could be Beam’s Graceland, or at least steps toward it. Fans looking for more lo-fi acoustic folk should invest in some Nick Drake, because there’s none here.

Originally published in The Buzzworthy – Vol. 19, Issue 1