It’s hard to give the new Iron and Wine release, Kiss Each Other Clean, an easy label. Sam Beam now has a full backing band, and the image of him alone in his bedroom, recording music with nothing but an acoustic guitar, seems apocryphal. But the back of the CD case shows the perfect genre: Warner Bros. folk.
Iron and Wine has been branded as folk music and commoditized successfully to such a degree that when Beam puts out an album such as Kiss Each Other Clean, it automatically acquires much more authentic singer-songwriter flavor than it deserves. In truth, Kiss Each Other Clean sounds like the great lost Eagles album. The preceding statement should scare anyone under the age of 40 and delight everyone who bought two copies of the Eagles’ greatest hits on CD.
“Walking Far from Home” starts the album with waves of guitar, recalling how The National ignited last year’s High Violet.
Beam’s free-associating lines do achieve a certain poetry through repetition: “I saw sickness/ Bloom in fruit trees/ I saw blood/ And a bit of it was mine/ I saw children in a river/ But their lips were still dry.” The aesthetic decision to have ever-present harmonizing falsettos certainly takes a toll.
A 1970s funk bass line and tambourines introduce “Me and Lazarus.” The horn section is just as baffling as Beam singing, “He’s an emancipated punk and he can dance/ But he’s got a hole in the pocket of his pants/ Must be a symptom of outstanding circumstances.” There’s nothing innately distasteful about a forced rhyme scheme, but there’s nothing to be gained here from Beam’s lyrics.
There is a long tradition of sad white bros making great songs about animals (Smog, Palace Brothers, Songs: Ohia), but Iron and Wine’s “Rabbit Will Run” is definitively not in that tradition.
With its exotic percussion, it sounds like Beam decided to mess with his fans by seeing how well he can pull off a Lion King-on-Broadway sound.
It’s worth considering “Godless Brother in Love” for the sophistication Beam exhibits as he accompanies a piano with classical-style guitar. The harmonies also push it toward the often-sought Beach Boys territory.
The following track, “Big Burned Hand,” has more mentions of God and more irksome saxophone.
As if the Eagles appropriation wasn’t enough of a sin, the first section of album closer “Your Fake Name is Good Enough for Me” sounds like an outtake from Steely Dan’s Aja. Fortunately, Beam switches up the sound and keeps things a bit interesting, but it’s nearly impossible to recover momentum once listeners begin thinking of Steely Dan.
At this point, Iron and Wine’s former niche is occupied. His higher-brow fans have Cass McCombs and those interested in him as a brand would much rather listen to Bon Iver, S. Carey or (unfortunately) Fleet Foxes. It appears that Warner Bros. folk has died before it ever really had a chance to live.
RATING: 2 out of 5 stars
vmain13@umdbk.com
