Album Details

• Artist: Iron And Wine
• Album: Kiss Each Other Clean
• Label: Warner
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: MusicCritic on 2011-02-18

Recently Sam Beam told SPIN magazine that Kiss Each Other Clean “is more of a focused pop record. It sounds like music people heard in their parent’s car growing up…that early-to-mid ‘70s FM, radio-friendly music” and he’s right. And it’s very surprising and very very very good. Excellent even. Astounding, actually. Even when you find yourself dancing in your car and you say, “WHAT? I’m dancing in my car to Iron & Wine? Is this happening?” It is, and you will love it. Completely. The days of Iron & Wine’s lo-fi home recording remain bubbling and simmering just underneath, but on the surface is a more refined, clean and deeply textured sound.

Some of that ‘70s radio-friendly-mom’s-car sound can be heard on the stellar ‘Rabbit Will Run,’ though it’s perhaps a bit more of a ‘70s porn sound than a radio vibe. Other stand-out tracks include ‘Tree By the River,’ ‘Monkeys Uptown’ and ‘Your Fake Name is Good Enough For Me.’ ‘Walking Far From Home’ is one of the strongest album openers in recent memory, and sets the tone for the eleven beautiful tracks that follow. There are a few misplaced jazz riffs and some excessive saxophone experimentation but both things are easily overlooked in the face of such an alluring and deeply moving album.

It’s difficult to pin down what makes Kiss Each Other Clean so beautiful. Is it the lush sensuality of Beam’s voice floating through the aural landscape? Yes. Is it a warmth that can only come from a record written by a man who spent much of his adult years in the heat of the Florida sun? Yes. Is it the rich tones of the multitude of instruments, each lovingly recorded and used so thoughtfully? Yes. It is all those things: competent, rich, experienced, honest, hopeful and full of promise for the future. But it’s also the most honest moments in life told through the eyes of a travelling poet. Beam writes of love, loss, humanity, joy, sorrow, God, death and life with the experience of a man who has lived everywhere and nowhere and has touched the earth and seen God and let it all enter him and affect him deeply.

Michelle Kennedy

User Reviews and Comments

on 2010-11-23 dscanland Said:

Nice new shiny art for you! Should be a good album. Sam has had enough time to work on this album.
Not Rated