If you would have told me a few years ago that Iron and Wine ““ famous for spare acoustic, man-alone-with-his-guitar music ““ would be creating fully fleshed-out, sonically complex music, I would have told you to take off your plaid hipster shirt and eat it.
Iron and Wine is the stage name for South Carolina-raised, Texas-based musician Sam Beam. The man with the bushy beard and the high, whispery voice began his career crafting the quiet, sweetly melodious songs heard on his first two albums, “The Creek Drank The Cradle” and “Our Endless Numbered Days.”
Leaving the stripped-down folk songs of his first releases behind, Beam’s fourth full-length album, “Kiss Each Other Clean,” proves that Iron and Wine is more than just the band behind the sweet indie waltz song, “Flightless Bird, American Mouth,” to which Edward Cullen and Bella Swan danced during the prom scene at the end of “Twilight.”
“Kiss Each Other Clean” picks up where Iron and Wine’s previous album ““ 2007’s lush, more musically diverse “The Shepherd’s Dog” ““ left off. The album featured songs that were layered with a wide range of instruments previously unheard on Iron and Wine’s recordings, from bongos to bass harmonica to vibraphone.
On “Kiss Each Other Clean,” Beam expands his musical canvas even further. Featuring a new slew of musical instruments, the songs are layered with fuzzed out guitars, piano, horns and even the surprise slide whistle. The end result is that while listening to the album, you may find yourself wondering what else Beam could possibly pull out of his beard ““ I mean, sleeve ““ next.
The second track, “Me and Lazarus,” opens with a sludgy Afrobeat, while electronic blips pierce the song’s rich texture like shooting stars. The riffs of a saxophone sneak in for a few classy lines, adding another new instrument to Beam’s arsenal, one that also makes an appearance on the funky blues of “Big Burned Hand.”
“Half Moon,” meanwhile, features the surprising combination of a female doo-wop chorus modernized with bluesy guitar and a shuffling beat.
Beam, however, saves the best for last. The penultimate song, “Glad Man Singing,” is the album’s most immediately catchy, combining Iron and Wine’s flare for melody with the use of raw guitar, strange percussive instruments, and acoustic guitar. Beam’s multi-layered instrumentation strengthens the song and manages not to distract from its beauty in the way that it does in other songs, such as the melodramatic “Godless Brother In Love.”
The album ends with an effortless transition into the rousing finale of “Your Fake Name Is Good Enough For Me.” Beginning as a skittering, jazzy rocker with edge-like electric guitar facing off against a big band horn section, it turns into something completely different and unexpected by the end. Just when you think the song is winding down, it comes back with a huge swirling, repeating chorus that crescendos into the highlight of the album. By the time the last note fades out, the song has become the one thing you never expected from Beam: the perfect epic concert closer.
With the constant bombardment of new sounds and instruments, at times old fans may find themselves missing the quiet, spare songs of Iron and Wine’s past. But on “Kiss Each Other Clean,” it’s the promise of the unexpected that keeps one’s ears interested and straining to hear what might be coming next. More than likely, it’ll be a complete surprise.
E-mail Flynn at mflynn@media.ucla.edu.