Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean (2011) [4AD/Warner Bros.] // Grade: B-

It would be easy to dismiss this album on principle alone. It’s Iron & Wine and he’s about as indie as P. Diddy, still he longs to cling to his roots as an indie songwriter. Lush arrangements and a lack of any lo-fi edge has distanced him from other modern folk troubadours for a while now. Still, you really cannot deny that Sam Beam is actually one heck of a songwriter.

I’m serious. His music is pure Americana, and in it you can hear the strains of almost all of the past greats. There’s a little Bachrach thrown into his Jackson Browne… a whole lot of Leonard Cohen mixed in with his Van Dyke Parks. “Rabbit Will Run” best illustrates this fusion with a cadence ripped right from Cohen’s “Suzanne” and rambly lyrics that are both parts Parks and Dylan. His lyrics are filled with mediocre metaphor, like many lyrics from the classic era of songwriters. This isn’t a bad thing either, music is not necessarily supposed to be poetry. When lyrics get too lofty it often tends to lose its pop appeal.

Pop appeal is plentiful in this release. Production wise, this is folktronica light. Fuzzy guitars and Roland 101 patterns abound, but so do elaborate soft rock arrangements.  The end result is a modern take on “Running on Empty” perhaps? There is definitely a retro 70’s vibe.  The entire album seems prepackaged to the film and television executives who love placing Beam’s product into theirs.  Again, there really isn’t anything wrong with that.  This is above ground music, it’s supposed to be.  It’s soccer mom SUV music to the maximum; just carefully indie enough to make the listener feel a little bit hip.

If everyone who listened to Train and Dave Matthews tuned into this instead, the world might be a better place.

- Nattymari