Sam Beam, the big bearded troubadour that is Iron and Wine has come a long way since 'The Creek Drank The Candle', that lo-fi, hushed whispered sound had evolved into something far more produced by the time 2007's excellent 'The Shepherd's Dog' reared it's shaggy head. 'Kiss Each Other Clean' the fourth studio proper from Iron and Wine represents another sonic leap forwards.
Lets get something straight from the off though, you might have heard doomy mentions of horns and funk (more of this later), but lets say that musical evolution is a good thing, it certainly is here, and "more produced" doesn't necessarily equate to not as good or a loss of musical intregity. Again sometimes it can but not here. This sounds like the record that Beam has been deliberately working his way towards, not just on record but in a live setting too, becoming more band orientated as time has gone on (though he is still better live on his own)
Make no mistake this is still Sam Beam, the sometimes impenetrable lyrics are still present, a tender evocative way with melody and that voice are present too , but the singing is better and the melodies far stronger. A case in point being opening track 'Walking Far From Home', which juxtaposes beautiful and distressing lyrical imagery whilst being backed by soothing vocal melody, it's a strong message of intent, but you'd be forgiven on first hearing this to imagine that beyond the production values not much has changed. You'd be wrong. There's so much going on underneath it's hard to take it in on first listen.
Second track 'Me and Lazarus' makes that clear, it is, if I may be admitted to use such a term' unrepentantly funky. Some of the vocal melody sounds like 'Islands In The Stream', there's all kinds of strange noises chittering away in the background too, and a sax, but it works. That's the thing, it WORKS and it works well. It's not just here either (there's synth everywhere!) 'Rabbit Will Run' the standout is jazzy. It's full of thumb piano, weird runs, mysterious burblings. It's inventive, it's exciting. Elsewhere 'Tree By The River' is pure joy with a smidgen of Paul Simon. There's 'Monkeys Up Town' with it's strange laid back groove or the straightforward beauty of 'Godless Brother In Love'.
It's a daring, daring record and there really is so much going on underneath that it's hard to get a handle on it. 4 listens in and I'm just hearing how it all works, it's symphonically wonderful, a real real achievement. A shame then that it's slightly let down by 'Big Burned Hand' following the song it does it's a terribly choice. A big sax cuts it and it sounds like a cheesy offcut from an even cheesier porn movie and is such a sore thumb that for a brief period after the song starts it threatens to derail the record. It doesn't though, the song settles down a bit and everything continues as before, and album closer 'Your Fake Name Is Good Enough for Me' shows that sax can work enormously well with the music Iron and Wine is doing right here.
So it's not perfect but it's close enough. The bottom line here is that Sam Beam has evolved and changed, he's not been afraid to bring in new ideas, production values and instruments. It could have been awful, that instead it is a sonic marvel whilst retaining all the quality, melody, beauty and brilliance that Iron and Wine have always had is some kind of genius.
Oh and PS, the lovely folks over at Team Coco are streaming the whole album at the moment.
