Although it was recorded at the same time as Light Verses in 2024, Iron and Wine’s Hen’s Teeth is in no way a retread. Darker nuances appear playing off the angles, creating visions of loving and living that exist in a different universe. These albums are not identical twins by any means. Hen’s Teeth tests the bonds between people. Opening with little more than an acoustic guitar, ‘Roses’ tracks corners that sometimes lead away from perfect love. When Sam Beam sings, “Beauty lasts about as long a lightning/ Honesty’s an eight ball in the dark,” the song begins to examine darker tones and times, with strings leading the song down pathways not just rustic but far less certain.
The world of ‘Paper and Stone’ offers a portrait of lovers who merge into a single person. “But for the time we fell in two/ you’d be me and I’d be you/ One crust of bread could fit in our mouths/ You’d breathe in and I’d let it out.” Playing this out against the imagery of games of Rock, Paper, Scissors, the music swells on waves of strings as a piano rises and falls, in much the same way love does, rising and falling and ultimately continuing.
Adorning ‘Robin’s Egg’ with the voices of I’m With Her (Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan) only adds to this meditation on the fragile nature of relationships. When their harmonies unfurl, “The only song I knew was the one I sang to you/ At least to the you I knew with all your curtains closed,” the fragility of relationships come into view. The risk of breaking is always there, while the music bounces in turns brittle and bright.
Not contained by traditional folk structures, Beam adds an air of Tropicalia to ‘Defiance, Ohio’ along with an occasional whistle. he uses a dreamlike string arrangement to make the song more of a conversation than an ornamental addition. Singing with his daughter, Arden (who also adds harmonies to ‘Singing Saw’ and ‘Grace Notes’) contributes more weight to the exchange.
Over the six minutes of ‘Dates and People’ the song transitions from a single voice to a multitude. Time signatures change, strings sway and swirl, rising and falling before fading out and coming back as multiple beams of Beam generate a force that falls away like a strong wind fading out. That he pulls off something this audacious is a testament to the power of his vision for what a song and a song form can be.
Sam Beam doesn’t like to grow stale, using albums with compatriots like Calexico, Ben Bridwell and Jesca Hoop to spur him on to greater creative heights. Having given birth to a pair of albums at the same time, Hen’s Teeth is much like the younger brother to Light Verse, taking more chances, pushing structures forward, adding new dynamics to the mix. Iron & Wine discovers new routes to take, encountering forces that keep moving his music forward.