The American folk musician Sam Beam signs, in an organic and finely etched mode, a call for human warmth.
The hen’s teeth do not exist, and it is precisely for this reason that Sam Beam, aka Iron & Wine, chose this expression for his new album, which came to be while he was recording his previous effort, Light Verse (2024, where we had the joy of hearing Fiona Apple’s voice), in Laurel Canyon, whose wooded legacy continues to feed the guitarist’s creativity. Yet he refused to restrain his compositions, citing the baroque Astral Weeks (1968) by Van Morrison on Singing Saw, or Nick Drake and Caetano Veloso on Defiance, Ohio.
Around him, his sextet of instrumentalists devoted to a lush musical fabric, yet not devoid of the sinuous groove that Beam is known for, who, on Wait Up and Robin’s Egg, align in the harmonic work with the vocalists Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan and Sara Watkins, from the trio I’m with Her.
In the Corner of a Room or in the Vastness of the Ocean
From the majestic opener Roses to the closing Half Measures, all these tracks, clothed in strings arranged by Paul Cartwright (whose deft approach deserves praise), tell stories often about love.
They summon human warmth in a world one would do well to escape at the first opportunity, to better celebrate what is no longer, or not enough, and then seek it in the smallest corner of a room or in the vastness of the ocean. No matter the poultry’s dentition and the weight of reality, Hen’s Teeth offers us a new light. Fragile but persistent.
Hen’s Teeth (Sub Pop/Modulor). Release on February 27.
