Calexico and Iron & Wine - Years To Burn

Fairly early on in Sam Beam’s (aka Iron & Wine) career, he teamed up with musical maestros Calexico for 2005’s excellent In The Reins.  Not necessarily two artists you would have paired up, but the musical marriage of their sounds worked exceedingly well.  In essence, the album sounded, well, like a hybrid between their somewhat disparate approaches and benefited as a result.  Fast forward fifteen years and many more releases for each artist - including some of each’s strongest material in a while in Beam’s Beast Epic and Calexico’s The Thread That Keeps Us - and the prospect of another musical reunion sounds promising. 

In spite of a handful of gems over the course of Years To Burn, the reunited group just never really get the mojo working as they did on the earlier album.  Beam sounds most engaged on ‘Father Mountain’ with Joey Burns joining in on earnest harmonies.  The song has a nugget of nostalgia certainly, but its energy makes it feel more in the moment.  Reins’ ultimate ace in the hole ended up being one of its softest tracks - the marimba flavored ‘Dead Man’s Will’.  Likewise, the new album’s best track comes in the gentle title track.  Burns turns in the most delicate of vocals with sympathetic brush work coming from partner John Convertino.  The muted trumpet playing from long-time Calexico contributor Jacob Valenzuela and sparse piano fills from Beam’s cohort Rob Burger cement the song as one of the best here.

On the flip side, sandwiching the album are a couple of its most frustrating tracks.  Album closer, ‘In Your Own Time’ is billed as one of the first songs Beam ever wrote, but the melody sounds like a slowed down/stripped down take on Kenny Roger’s ‘The Gambler’.  Not necessarily a thought you want to leave the album with.  That’s after being given time to recover from album opener ‘What Heaven’s Left’ which sounds like Smokey Robinson’s ‘Tracks of My Tears’ from the opening notes and cements that as it goes along.  ‘Heaven’ does benefit from Valenzuela’s impassioned playing as it builds and Paul Niehaus’ (Lambchop and Calexico veteran) expert pedal steel playing. 

Of the other songs, collaboration just doesn’t seem evident.  ‘Midnight Sun’ definitely makes for a solid Calexico track with Convertino given a bit more room to run and having Niehaus back on board gives the track a highway mirage finish.  Likewise, the perfectly pleasant ‘Follow The Water’ would make for a solid song alongside Beam’s latest work.  The center holds its own on the eight-minute ‘The Bitter Suite’, but like the album bookends the extended intro and outro to the song are just a bit lackluster.

Maybe the sound of Years To Burn is that of longtime friends that are comfortable in their own skin and see no need to push each other further.  That’s a great friendship to have and treasure.  One perfect for a Friday night wind-down over a few whiskeys.  It just doesn’t make for much excitement for the outside observer or that compelling of a listen in the musical instance.  The highlights here are well worth checking out and appending to their prior collaboration.  (In fairness, I view In The Reins as a highlight for both artists, so maybe my expectations ran too high here). 

Note:  The album is currently streaming at NPR's First Listen in advance of its release date.  With an extended and rare joint tour coming up these seasoned performers are certainly ones to catch live.