Review Summary: Warmth
Iron & Wine lost me a bit from 2013’s
Ghost on Ghost to 2017’s
Beast Epic. It’s not that Sam Beam’s songwriting chops ever wavered, or that he strayed too far from his roots – I just didn’t feel like the music represented much during that era besides a workman-like demonstration that Beam could indeed still write competent acoustic ballads. It wasn’t until 2024’s
Light Verses that Iron & Wine finally reeled me back in with Sam’s most melodic and memorable album in what felt like ages; it was a record brimming with some the writer’s most obvious yet brilliant poetry (‘Tears That Don’t Matter’ still melts my soul, and the Fiona Apple duet on ‘All In Good Time’ continues to live rent free in my head) since what I would consider to be his artistic peak back in the 2000s. As an immediate top-five Iron & Wine record in my mind,
Light Verses ushered in a second golden era for Beam – leaving in its wake a bar that would be difficult for any follow-up effort to clear.
Hen’s Teeth has no intentions of jumping over that bar, however. In fact, it wanders completely off the highly-adorned trail that
Light Verses was starting to blaze. This album is more interested in stopping to smell the wildflowers growing a few feet into the woods. It spends an entire afternoon skipping stones on the glassy surface of that pond just over the hill. It lays on its back in a clearing, just staring into the sky. In just about every way,
Hen’s Teeth retreats inward. My initial opinion of this record was admittedly one of slight disappointment, as I wondered to myself where the sweeping strings and highly engaging folk-pop went. I was almost ready to chalk it up to a return to mid-2010s "Iron & Just Fine", thus establishing
Light Verses as a late career flash-in-the-pan. But across my third and fourth listens – and whatever I’m up to now –
Hen’s Teeth has revealed an inner warmth that I haven’t felt from an Iron & Wine album in a very long time.
Hen’s Teeth is very much its own little batch of reserved, lush indie-folk gems. Every song here burns with a soft, inviting glow, and together they form a hearth that beckons you to come and stay for a while.
From front to end,
Hen’s Teeth reveals its beauty in spades. I can’t get over how elegant ‘Paper and Stone’ is, or how the viola playfully dances in the background to give the whole thing a faint country aura. ‘Defiance, Ohio’ is a sea of intertwining pastoral acoustics, thumping bass, flourishing violins, and playful whistling that I have been unable to stop myself from returning to every few hours just to get another taste. ‘Half Measures’ is a hushed ballad of sorts, but Beam’s voice bends the song in unexpected directions. ‘Dates and Dead People’ traverses various structures and tempos across a six minute runtime that culminates in a series of haunting, layered refrains. Even the I’m With Her features on ‘Robin’s Egg’ and ‘Wait Up’ – which felt like over-embellishments initially – have proven to be some of the most aesthetically beautiful vocal cuts on the entire record. There’s no shortage of jaw-dropping content here, you just have to wait for it to unravel.
Hen’s Teeth isn’t as immediately lustrous as
Light Verses was, but I have a feeling it may end up being my preferred album in the long run.
I could wax poetic about all the different ways that
Hen’s Teeth continues to sprout new favorite moments for me – right now, it’s the almost Americana-lounge vibe of ‘Grace Notes’ – but I fear I’d run out of different adjectives to praise Beam’s combination of beauty and restraint.
Hen’s Teeth is an album that very much continues the revival of Iron & Wine, it just takes a different approach. This is an album for coffee and rainy Sunday mornings. For driving your kids to the park on an unseasonably warm February afternoon. For unwinding at the end of the night with a glass of red wine. The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve found beauty within rare moments of calm.
Hen’s Teeth is an album that matches that mood, and perhaps you can chalk it up to a personal aligning of the stars, but right now it’s everything I need.
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