By Donzig
Sam Beam has been making music under the moniker Iron & Wine since 2002, debuting with the self-produced and self-performed home recording The Creek Drank the Cradle. Beam migrated to the recording studio for subsequent releases, began using a backing band, and gave up the producer's role for a time. But make no mistake, Sam Beam is Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine's sound became bigger as time went on, evolving beyond its folk roots, gaining an audience in alternative music circles without fully becoming an indie rock band. Never a prolific artist, Beam broke a five-year drought of new studio recordings with 2024's Light Verse. The album continued the more mainstream sound of previous releases, yielding the popular, radio-friendly duet "All in Good Time" with Fiona Apple.
Iron & Wine's latest project, Hen's Teeth, takes a different tack. Although it was recorded at the same time as Light Verse and with the same personnel, Hen's Teeth is a notably different creation. In a partial return to the original sound, Sam Beam and friends created a largely acoustic album, with most songs having relatively sparse arrangements harking back to the early sound.
The first single, "Robin's Egg, came out in mid-2025 and featured vocals by female country and bluegrass trio I'm With Her. It's a track I was happy to include on my Top 10 Tracks of 2025 list here.
The second single is "In Your Ocean", on which Beam provides his own vocal harmony to good effect. It is currently getting a fair amount of play on two non-commercial radio stations I regularly stream for new music: WYEP and WNRN. Both are highly recommended.
Other standout tracks include "Singing Saw", which has a sound reminiscent of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and Iron & Wine's own The Shepherd's Dog. Another gem here is "Wait Up", a collaboration featuring I'm With Her, with a lush string arrangement. Also worth highlighting is "Dates and Dead People", another song with strong vocal harmonies and string accompaniment.
Listening to Hen's Teeth, I couldn't help but appreciate how human it sounds. From the depths of emotion in Beam's unprocessed vocals to the real, actual instruments playing in the background, this is clearly a creation of an artist and his friends, not a product of studio tricks and techniques. Even the strings are played by band members, not created with special effects, or sampled. This human element is almost completely lacking in mainstream pop in recent years, and even much "indie" music suffers from a certain studio-induced homogeneity. In a world full of Johnny Bravos, Iron & Wine are stepping away from excessively processed fare and delivering fresh sonic delights.
Hen's Teeth by Iron & Wine is out today on Sub Pop.
[Photo: Kim Black]