Album Review: Kiss Each Other Clean by Iron & Wine

Iron & Wine, Sam Beam, hit the scene with it's first album in 2002.  It was a simple album of Beam and his acoustic guitar.  It, more than most I've heard, really does capture the bedroom recording vibe that it's shooting for and you feel pulled into an intimate setting that immediately draws you into the world Beam was trying to create. 

Well that was nine years ago, and today Beam is on a much bigger stage and trying to create a much bigger sound.  The problem is that Beam doesn't seem to know how to grow his sound without it sounding like an effort.  The songs are still there, but where the music before simply acted as a medium to draw you into the lyrics and the vibe, now the music is getting in the way and that intimate feel that his lyrics need in order to have their affect is lost.

It's not a bad album but if you are a fan of the early Iron & Wine stuff, you may not be such of fan of this.  I could see throwing this album on while you head to the park to fly a kite with your dog.   

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 2 out of 5 stars for Not Bad.

I just want to add a comment here that this live version sounds quite different than the version on the album.