When it was released in 2011 Iron & Wine's Kiss Each Other Clean saw the band pushing into more bombastic territory. It was a move that alienated some of their older fans while at the same time opening new doors for him His usage of electric guitars, organs, and horn sections on that album fleshed out the band's sound and signposted his moving away from the quaintness of his early work. The sound was bigger and louder than ever before and the singer/songwriter/whole-freaking-band Sam Beam dived into the turmoil with gusto. His new album Ghost On Ghost is, if anything, a quiet step backwards in that regard, favoring quieter moments over explosive ones and introspection over exhibitionism.
Kiss Each Other Clean and Ghost
On Ghost are inescapably two sides of the same coin. While the
overall sound of these two albums vary dramatically there is plenty
of room for a common ground; a brotherhood of shared theme and motif.
The latter's 'Low Light Buddy of Mine' plays out like a sequel to
'Monkey's Uptown' from the earlier. The cheerful refrain of first
track 'Caught in the Briars' beams brightly as a pleasant
introduction to the piece only to be thrown into prog rock
explorations in the coda. These new songs kick at the borders already
sketched out and bleed out into new territory. The days of the
quaint troubadour are far behind us by now, glistening in the rear
view mirror.
Iron & Wine are still pulling new
tricks out of an infinitely deep bag it is just that the tricks
themselves have changed. You will find less rockers and twangers but
more jazz trio leanings and loose-limbed rhythms. This approach is
best distilled on 'Lover's Revolution'. It starts quaintly like a bop
outfit at a dive bar, gently and with minimal instrumentation. The
song unfurls it many layers and it marches forwards; voices shouted
out of the shadows, keyboards, and a steadily rising momentum. At the
apex it ignites into an instrumental bridge like the unruly child of
Van Morrison and King Crimson. The song is so dynamic and damned
unpredictable it stands out a mile from its peers.
No matter what other instruments are on
display the focus always returns to Iron & Wine's finest asset:
Beam's voice. The only apt description for it is 'angelic' and it is
front and center of every single song on this album. It aches in the
slow-burning weepers ('Grass Widows' ) and elevates on the joyous
rave-ups ('Grace For Saints and Ramblers'). Ghost On Ghost is
not a particularly flashy album on the surface. It seeks to seduce
you with its heart over cheap spectacle. The hooks are buried beneath
the music's skin and it might take multiple spins to unpick them but
the effort is well worth it.
Rating: A-
Recommended tracks: Lover's Revolution,
Low Light Buddy of Mine, Singers of the Endless Song
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