Kiss Each Other Clean

t may take a few albums for him to perfect the new sound, and we should expect that, keeping in mind that when he does, the results may very well be awe-inspiring. At the moment, however, Kiss Each Other Clean just isn't there yet.

Kiss Each Other Clean makes Sam Beam four for four--more if you count the EPs and 2009's rarities set Around the Well.

Nestling welcomed experimentation among familiar tunes, Beam is hedging his bets with Kiss Each Other Clean.

Albums like Kiss Each Other Clean and The Age of Adz are so giddy with compacting layers and counter layers into the already mapped-out confines of their pre-existing aesthetics that they come across like snowflakes: each one is beautiful and unique, except that the detail is too small to see and anyways there's about a billion of them shits and you have to shovel the walkway and hope public transit isn't delayed. It's distracting, basically, because nothing gets a chance to breath.

A noticeable departure on Kiss Each Other Clean is that Beam seems to be having a genuinely good time on the album.

On Kiss Each Other Clean, Beam's muse must have told him to pull back on the reins.

The remarkable change here comes from courtesy of the record's sonic qualities.

When the grandiosity succeeds, it's pleasing, perhaps even wonderful. But when it fails, which it does every so often (even at moments on the strongest tracks), it just kind of makes you wonder why things couldn't just stay the way they were.

Kiss Each Other Clean is much more focused and homogenous, but there's still a lingering sense of abundant inspiration, eager to carry the songs off to different lairs.

Here, Beam adds funky Stevie Wonder synths to the mix. And marimba. Lots of marimba.

Mostly, the listener will leave Kiss Each Other Clean craving something lyrically to hold onto, to become affected beyond the immediate emotional stirs that the pure prettiness of songs like Godless Brother In Love.

The equivalent of changing radio stations in his more youthful days, Kiss Each Other Clean is the result of Beam uncontrollably turning the radio knob until finding the right tune in his head.

Kiss Each Other Clean has the potential to please longtime fans and generate plenty of new ones.

The music reflects the excitement of a man who realizes he's onto something; Beam's vocals have never been so strong, and the bountiful instrumentation marks a musician eager to show off the range of options he's discovered.

Now with his fifth album, Beam may not have abandoned his roots, but he's certainly stretched far beyond them.

Less folksy, more funky, Kiss Each Other Clean is a rather more lively, sometimes even poppy record.

These songs are generally not the type to grab you right away, but there's enough mystery and melody there to call you back.

This is not an edgy or restless record, but rather introspective, warm, and almost tropical.

Kiss Each Other Clean is a surprising and majestic triumph.

Not all of the new sounds enhance Beam's lovely melodies, but they rarely obscure those underlying charms, either.

Somehow Beam pulls off the variety without making Kiss Each Other Clean feel disjointed or forced.

Beam's headed someplace, and it's worth following.

Beam comes across as a latterday prophet, casting his gentle eye over capitalist, warmongering western society with sorrow and kindness.

There can be a thin line between ambitious and pretentious, but this record dodges the latter gracefully.

Ultimately, however, once you've gotten past the nagging feeling that you're not really listening to the Iron And Wine you thought you knew, you realize that you are, and that many of the songs are wonderful.

Kiss delivers plenty of unexpected layers, employed judiciously in service of Beam's usual ruminative ideas about good and evil, love and death.

Beam's songwriting retains a cryptic quality, but the feeling shines through, and however far Iron & Wine travels from its starting point, it still won't feel far from home.

Some of the experiments here may work better than others in the long term, but it is far better that Beam is an artist prepared to take risks. His best work may be yet to come, while his writing remains vivid and evocative.

Such is the rich detail dispersed across Kiss Each Other Clean that it demands some intensive listening to absorb all of its pleasures, especially when the choruses are not as cleanly-cut as one might expect of such a well-groomed higher-profile release.

More subtle delights from the bearded Mr. Beam. [Feb. 2011, p. 117]