Iron & Wine (the stage name of singer-songwriter Sam Beam) has made a career of playing acoustic guitar and whispering into listener’s ears. Over the course of four studio albums, Iron & Wine’s sound has evolved from acoustic guitars with AM Radio fidelity to fuller multi-instrument arrangements. On their latest effort Kiss Each Other Clean (Warner Bros.), Beam enlists a band to create this polyphonic sound. Yet where previously there may have been a simple drum or guitar backing, this album uses synthesizers, thumb pianos and Yacht Rock saxophones. These risks often pay off, but sometimes are ill conceived and self-indulgent.
It’s apparent that this isn’t your typical Iron & Wine from the first notes of the album. “Walking Far From Home,” the album’s lead single, begins with Beam’s filtered croon over layers of chiming synthesizers, pianos and swirling atmospheric vocal harmonies. The real shock comes three minutes into the track, when a buzzsaw synthesizer found more in dance music then in folk rock overshadows all other instrumentation. This gamble work perfectly on this moody track that keeps you hooked throughout.
The next track, “Me And Lazarus,” opens with a funky bass line that is soon joined by a saxophone straight out of Steely Dan’s heyday. It keeps a smooth groove throughout with added synthesizers and an acoustic guitar in the mix, but the acoustic sits so low in the mix that it is rendered nearly inaudible. In contrast, “Tree by the River” (a track that could be described as Wilco-esque), sounds like what one might expect polyphonic Iron and Wine to sound like. Acoustic guitar, vocal harmonies and a bluesy lead guitar compliment Beam’s clever lyricism: “Time isn’t kind or unkind, you liked to say / But I wonder to who / what it is you’re saying today.” The next two tracks further highlight this juxtaposition: one featuring heavy bass and intricate rhythms, the other with prominent acoustic guitar and a lead George Harrison would be proud of. One of Kiss Each Other Clean’s biggest problems is this lack of focus that plagues it from beginning to end.
Yet for the all the moments where Iron & Wine’s experimentation pays off, there are instances where it simply doesn’t. The song that most exemplifies the problems of Kiss Each Other Clean is “Rabbit Will Run.” It is an unfocused mess including not one but two recorder breakdowns that are nothing but obnoxious. Beam’s great voice is given a metallic filter as African rhythms push the track toward a beat drop and an incredibly cheesy flute part. This gamble also fails Iron & Wine on “Big Burned Hand,” which once again utilizes those kitschy 70s saxophones to a poor effect.
Overall Kiss Each Other Clean is worth a couple of listens despite its flaws. It may not be Iron and Wine’s best album – that distinction goes to 2004’s Our Endless Numbered Days (Sub Pop) – but it certainly isn’t a bad album. For what it lacks in focus it makes up for with ambition. Iron & Wine is experimenting with different sounds and textures instead of resting on the laurels of past records. And in the end, isn’t this exactly what we want artists to do?
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
