- After nearly fifteen years, Calexico and Iron & Wine have teamed up again to produce an album of laidback folk songs. The second release from the pairing, Years to Burn is the debut album by Calexico and Iron & Wine, following their 2005 EP Into the Reins. No strangers to collaboration, Iron & Wine have also partnered with Jesca Hoop and Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell in recent years, but it’s their return to work with Calexico that seems the most natural.
Throughout the eight-track album, Calexico and Iron & Wine alternate between lead and backing vocals with the transitions and accompaniment melding seamlessly. Musically, the integration is just as comfortable. The album is laden with piano, double bass, trumpets and Sam Beam’s trademark twangy, acoustic guitar. It’s a timbre that flatters both bands as well as the homogenous batch of songs they have carved out together. Despite this cohesion, there are many that stand out on the album. One such is the eight-minute epic medley, The Bitter Suite (Pajaro / Evil Eye / Tennessee Train), which serves the album as a mellifluous blending of several musical ideas.
Another highlight is opener What Heaven’s Left, which begins as a soulful folk song that crescendos into a panoply of bleating horns. On other tracks such as, Father Mountain and In Your Own Time, Calexico and Iron & Wine opt for simplicity over grandiosity and the result is a warm display of Americana. Unsurprisingly, Years to Burn comes across as a more mature offering than the bands’ previous work together. The result is an album that doesn’t overplay its hand. Years to Burn is not going to shock or surprise anyone but it will no doubt serve as a welcome gift to any fan of Calexico, Iron & Wine or great folk music.
- Jon Cloumassis.