My first listen to Iron & Wine was only last year, when iconic Midwest Emo band American Football released a cover album of their now classic 1999 self-titled album. Keen to hear all of my favourite tracks reincarnated by some seemingly random, and unknown artists, I woke up on its release date to find that their most popular song “Never Meant” was covered by Samuel Beam, aka Iron & Wine. The song is literally a masterpiece, both its original and Beam’s fantastic cover, a triumph in stretching and kneading the track into something new and beautifully haunting.
Hen's Teeth is genuinely lovely, but not quite the ethereal experience I was expecting after my first exposure. Don’t get me wrong, the musicianship, the lyricism and the overall atmosphere of the album is nice to listen to. “Singing Saw” struck me with its dusty coolness, like it belonged in a cowboy western, just as a lone gunslinger found a reason for revenge. The penultimate track “Dates & Dead People” has a way of building and pulling away that feels great, a drama akin to The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby”. For me, however, “In Your Ocean” lands as the peak of the album. It’s a taste of Iron & Wine’s ability to make folk music that can make you feel warm, like he’s playing to you around a campfire, except this time on a beach with your friends rather than a scary old man in the woods.
The rest of the album just sort of passed me by, not boring, but exactly what you might expect from a folk passion project. Iron & Wine’s sound is unique, but that means that songs can slightly blend in to one another. Beam’s music can feel slightly taxing in the wrong context, driving home from a long day, you might feel the weight of the world on your shoulders while listening to such introspective music; if however, you were sat on balcony watching the sun set on a warm summer's day, the album would lend itself perfectly to a calming, reflective evening. Either way, this is an album in Beam’s discography to be proud of, it’s equally haunting and warming and worth delving into.
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