I'm a big fan of Iron & Wine and was pleasantly surprised by their last album, where Sam Beam expanded his sonic palette and came away with some great music. The new album again sees Beam spreading his wings but with far less success. On many songs, it seemed like that he didn't clean up the actual songwriting and hoped that the increased instrumentalization would cover up the song's flaws. (And no, I'm not sure that instrumentalization is a word.) And in kind of an odd twist, because the album is experimenting with new instruments, all of the compositions sound simpler than even Iron & WIne's past solely acoustic performances. Whereas the last album had a new direction, it sounded like a band that was both competent and confident in its direction; on Kiss Me Clean, it sounds like Beam only knows the basics and hasn't mastered the genres/instruments and the compositions have been limited because of this.

The album reminds me a bit of Counting Crows' This Desert Lift in which the band kind of went for the simpler Joni Mitchell type sound, which took away from the strengths of their compositions. Iron & Wine has seemed to stumble in the same direction and delivered an album which right now I'm not very fond of. Now, music can always grow on you but I just don't see this album as one of those; it seems entirely forgettable.

On a side note, I'm planning on doing some kind of list ala the Best Movies of the Year for music but I'm not sure if it's going to be a list of Essential Albums or just a playlist of best songs of the year. I don't like ranking music because I feel like it's harder to say one song is better than the other because os much of what I want to hear is based on my mood but I'd like to get some kind of compilation going. I'd think about it more but I probably shouldn't be late for work so I'll try to put something together tonight.