Iron & Wine: Kiss Each Other Clean (4AD)
Along which forking roads would the folkies be travellin’ in 2011? After 9 years of helping put folk music back on the path from hippie-ness to hipness, Sam Beam’s answer is to move forward from acoustic intimations to a more rhythmic, full-bodied sound.
Good to hear the bearded one take on some funky keyboard playing in ‘Monkeys Uptown’ and go a lil’ trippy on the album’s wyrd-folk, psychedelic apogee, ‘Rabbit Will Run’. Beam hasn’t let it all spill; he’s just poured more adventurous elements into Iron & Wine. CUO
LISTEN TO: ‘Tree By The River’
IF YOU LIKE THIS YOU’LL DIG: Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists
RATING: 3½
Text: Christopher Ujine Ong
Get medieval at www.ironandwine.com.