{"id":309433,"date":"2026-02-25T12:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T12:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/309433\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T12:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T12:19:10","slug":"iron-wine-hens-teeth-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/309433\/","title":{"rendered":"Iron & Wine, ‘Hen’s Teeth’ Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Sam Beam made the last Iron & Wine album, 2024\u2019s Light Verse<\/a>, he chose to name it after a form of poetry centered on levity, amusement, and joy. But that title is a misnomer, a bait-and-switch; the record\u2019s dark subject matter often belies its buoyant instrumentals. \u201cAll in Good Time,\u201d a duet with Fiona Apple, makes for a pointed example, with a bridge that climaxes in both vocalists singing \u201csomething wants to eat us all alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hen\u2019s Teeth, its self-coined \u201csibling album\u201d and recorded in the same sessions with the same backing band at Laurel Canyon\u2019s Waystation, is the darker side of the moon. Here, Beam explores the gravitational properties of love and how it can sometimes pull us toward less-than-welcoming places. Whereas the songs on Light Verse mask their gloomy themes with gleeful instrumentation, Hen\u2019s Teeth is the inverse of that. This is an album that finds solace in sorrow; the gratification that can arise from devotion to the point of self-erasure; and watching something bigger than yourself flourish from an act of giving.<\/p>\n

Beam gets the album\u2019s ethos across from its lead single alone. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be saved \/ How I wish you felt the same \/ When I find myself swimming in your ocean,\u201d he sings near the end of \u201cIn Your Ocean.\u201d Or take the penultimate \u201cDates and Dead People,\u201d in which its protagonist\u2019s toast to a life of love is \u201clighter than light,\u201d an \u201cempty cloud that gave all it could bear.\u201d The way Beam sings it, feeling empty sounds sublimely fulfilling. During early highlight \u201cPaper and Stone,\u201d he repurposes a classic game of chance to meditate on an uneven partnership, how one half inevitably subsumes the other: \u201cSay who we are \/ paper and stone \/ Say who we are \/ stone and scissors.\u201d It\u2019s a clever metaphor that tangentially summons one of Amy Winehouse\u2019s most famous aphorisms.<\/a><\/p>\n

Given that Light Verse was the first proper Iron & Wine album since 2017\u2019s Beast Epic, the short release window between Hen\u2019s Teeth and its predecessor seems like yet another tethering device. But its inverse themes make for something deeper and more convincing. It isn\u2019t subversive, per se, as it draws from the same indie-folk stylings and finger-picked guitars as its direct sibling (and its many cousins in other Iron & Wine albums), yet that doesn\u2019t dull its impact so much as call attention to its more novel embellishments. Paul Jacob Cartwright\u2019s trilling violin makes for a warm presence on \u201cSinging Saw.\u201d Mandola, zither, and tenor guitar, courtesy of Cartwright and David Garza, add textural flair and tonal depth throughout. I\u2019m With Her\u2019s guest harmonies on \u201cRobin\u2019s Egg\u201d and \u201cWait Up\u201d blend seamlessly with the songs\u2019 filigreed arrangements.<\/p>\n

Even on its own merits and severed from its sibling, Hen\u2019s Teeth is a reminder of Sam Beam\u2019s stirring songwriting prowess and how he has always been capable of wringing new sentiments and ideas out of his tried-and-true indie-folk milieu. As one of the most consistently compelling musicians of his era, it\u2019s a delight to hear him continue on a streak that\u2019s decidedly yet to meet its end. Across these ten songs, Beam explores romance\u2019s well-documented dichotomy of pleasure and pain, but the act of listening to the music itself is pure pleasure. [Sub Pop]<\/p>\n

Grant Sharples is a writer, journalist and critic. His work has also appeared in Interview, Uproxx, Pitchfork, Stereogum, The Ringer, Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications. He lives in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

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