Iron & Wine – Hen’s Teeth

“I’ve always wanted to use that title,” Sam Beam says of Hen’s Teeth, his eighth full-length album and his sixth for Sub Pop Records. “I just love it. To me it suggests the impossible. Hen’s teeth do not exist. And that’s what this record felt like: a gift that shouldn’t be there but it is.” Hen’s Teeth and his previous album, Light Verse, are siblings of a sort. They were recorded during the same sessions after a year-long dry spell, with the same band, at Waystation studio in Laurel Canyon. “I’m at a point in my life where spontaneity is a lot more important to me. I’m a lot freer and I love making music more than ever. There are no right or wrong answers. You just pray for your luck and try your best.” In this case prayers were answered and luck struck hard. The musicians cohered so quickly that they were often getting songs recorded in just a few takes, sometimes at the rate of two or three per day. The two albums might therefore be thought of as