Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean

Sam Beam moved to Warner Brothers in last October, which makes Kiss Each Other Clean his first major-label release. That’s traditionally been an important line of artistic demarcation for indie acts benefitting from newfound studio bells and whistles, but not so here.

In part, this is because Beam’s last album, 2007’s The Shepherd’s Dog, represented the kind of stylistic development we typically see from major-label debuts, introducing a range of electronic, jazz and blues elements into Iron & Wine’s previously lo-fi palette. Consequently, Kiss Each Other Clean is more occupied with refining Beam’s newly ambitious sound than with reinvention.

The first iteration of Iron & Wine came with a readymade characterization: Beam as the acoustic troubadour, like Nick Drake with a Southern Gothic bent. When he began to bring his compositions out of the bedroom, it was easy to view the more complex arrangements as window dressing, purely aesthetic additions. But this narrative obscured a more fundamental change: As Beam’s arrangements have evolved, so have the songs underneath. Whereas the melodies on The Creek Drank the Cradle were lilting, unobtrusive things, on Kiss Each Other Clean they’re bigger and more engaging. Beam still shies from traditional verse-chorus-verse structure, but his refrains are increasingly dynamic.

And though Kiss Each Other Clean generally follows in its predecessor’s sonic footsteps, Beam doesn’t hesitate to take chances. He drops a big, fuzzy synth line into the middle of opening piano ballad “Walking Far From Home” and uses a tinny vocal filter on centerpiece “Rabbit Will Run.” Both tracks are transcendent, owing in large part to their dynamic production. Beam retains his affinity for layering and harmonizing vocals, probably the most direct link to his stated inspiration of ’70s-era radio pop.

Not all of these risks pay off; ironically, the saxophones he employed to magnificent effect on The Shepherd’s Dog standout “House by the Sea” are mostly unwelcome here on “Big Burned Hand” and “Your Fake Name Is Good Enough for Me.” But Kiss Each Other Clean rarely misses completely, an expansive yet intimate collection that highlights Iron & Wine’s evolving strengths.