LISTEN
Iron & Wine Woman King
Ex-college professor and formidably bearded bard Sam Beam has long alluded to romantic, playful sexuality under his two-for-one pseudonym Iron & Wine, softly worshipping and caressing the corporeal with whispered words and a fragile, but deceptively deft, acoustic guitar. Iron & Wine's sound has swelled as he has released more CDs. What began as a man in his bedroom with just a four-track and a guitar has evolved into a full band affair. On Woman King, a collection of six new songs recorded last summer, Beam and Co. juxtapose love female empowerment and a new sexual frankness in waves of lyrically dense, brainy neo-folk.
rainy neo-folk.
Like a passing afternoon of tantric sex,
Woman King is a series of manic thrusts and prolonged reservation. A twisting slide riff and shots of electronic fuzz on the lead and title track open the EP with an air of urgency, only to be suppressed by the two tracks that follow. "Jezebel," a retelling of the famous biblical harlot's unfortunate morbid demise, and "Gray Stables" are both standard Iron & Wine: quiet, melodic and altogether excellent.
quiet, melodic and altogether cool. The push and pull continues on the EP's latter half. "Freedom Hangs Like Heaven" marches like a pacifist's war anthem, augmented by a tightly coiled blues bounce and dancing banjo. True to form, "My Lady's House" follows and glides on delicate guitar and soft piano while Beam waxes poetic, singing his muse's praise. The album's closer, "Evening on the Ground (Lilith's Song)," is the album's climax and unlike anything Iron
& Wine has done. A defensive protest, an explicit sexual reference and (gasp) a haggard electric guitar all pop up before the song and the album collapse in a crumpled heap, leaving all parties involved collectively dazed.
involved collectively quickly.
If it's not clear, Iron & Wine is completely and mind-numbingly awesome. Beam re-affirms his role as a paragon of folk's new renaissance on Woman King, fording new creeks of creativity by walking on their water. If Iron & Wine were the world's soundtrack, women would be equal, AK-47s would fire rose petals, love would replace television, and life would be fine.
Grade:A
—Dave Ruigh