Indie singer/songwriter Sam Beam better known under his moniker Iron and Wine returns to the music industry after a seven-year hiatus with his new release Light Verse. The album follows his 2017 release Beast Epic, which was nominated for 2 Grammys.
His ardent fans can rejoice in Light Verse displaying once again his excellent lyrical ruminations about themes of promise, heartache, laughter, life and love. He personifies these ideas through characters that range from wide-eyed optimists to despairing individuals who feel they have been overlooked. Beam has said he drew upon fictional and personal insights including his anxiety and relief after Covid to create the album.
Sonically the album takes advantage of not only Beam’s musical prowess but a strong group of collaborators, a 24-piece orchestra and the emotive songstress Fiona Apple. She is featured in a duet with Beam on the track “All in Good Time.” Beam suggests that listeners take in the album in its entirety. The tracks are filled with equal parts elegy, wide spectrum sensory experience, playfulness, truth and daring.
Light Verse begins with “You Never Know” and a cacophony of sound that breaks into a simple acoustic guitar. The song is both beautiful and unsettling as it ponders the idea that you can be many things in life but you are never really in control. The track builds to a satisfying crescendo with effective strings. “Anyone’s Game” has a more rock sound accomplished with a bouncy tempo, excellent drums and electric guitars. The theme is the game of life and how we tend to take our lives for granted, and in taking our lives for granted we are sure to mess it up, “Nobody can be reborn too many times…” The selection is winning and displays Beam’s genius in getting his message across.
The inspired duet with Fiona Apple on “All in Good Time” is brilliant. Capturing all that Apple can deliver on any outing and paring it to powerful insights. It displays the cocky assuredness of youth, tempered by what is realized by growing older. The lyrics are perfectly balanced reflecting opportunities lost and regret, “I ran my mouth till there was nothing left to say … finally picked on someone my size … you held my ring till it didn’t fit.” The acoustic guitar is blended perfectly with Blues flashes and strings to create an impressive track. “Cutting it Close” is another piano acoustic guitar offering. The prescient lyrics are another apt examination of life, observing time does what it does, “I just wish time would not do it to us.”
“Taken by Surprise” is an absolute “do not miss track” examining love and relationships. This glimmering selection feels sunlit and beautiful as the stream-of-consciousness lyrics illuminate opportunities missed and how it is allowed to happen. “Yellow Jacket” conveys a dreamy feeling reflecting a night and all its sounds and events, the excitement of the night and disappointment in acknowledging when it’s time to head for bed.
“Sweet Talk” is punchier and playful. Again captivating is the wordplay of the lyrics; “Let’s play right into a beautiful life… “We can work together to make it so … sounds easy if you never have to do it”. There is beauty in striving for this perfection but never being able to bring it off.
“Tears That Don’t Matter” is another breathtaking track on an album filled with special moments. Here Beam provides the imagery of a lost and found, where the components are made up of the important and the flotsam elements of a life. Examining his quandary in figuring out which is which. It is a thought-provoking song that upon each listen will provide a different meaning, with events and objects being everything and nothing at the same time. The final song “Angel Go Home” is a tranquil sign-off to the album. It is expansive and ethereal with lovely strings and shows off the beauty of Beam’s voice on the enthralling finale of a brilliant effort.
Light Verse provides this overall feeling that Beam is having a one-on-one musical conversation with the listener. He delivers delightful lyrical thoughts that are based on life experiences. Iron and Wine’s last release Beast Epic was full of dissatisfaction with middle age and growing older, on Light Verse beam has accepted the ageing process and wants to convey what he has discovered up to this point in his life.
The release is lovingly hand-crafted and displays an artisan who is as gifted as any in the musical business. The album is a joy for those familiar with his work and a revelation for those experiencing Iron and Wine for the first time.
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