CALEXICO and IRON & WINE ‘Years To Burn’ – CD

$29.00 Inc GST

Available on backorder

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Description

Calexico and Iron & Wine first collaborated in 2005 for the album In The Reins. Now, 14 years later, we have Years To Burn, an album ringing with Sam Beam [Iron & Wine]’s soulful sobriety and Calexico’s gusty American Southwestern aesthetic.

Fittingly, it’s a record that’s all about time and how we measure it: against our own memories, against other people, again previous albums. “We only want a life that’s well worth living,” Beam sings on closer “In Your Own Time,” “and sleeping ain’t no kind of life at all.” Such a line might come across as too obvious if it didn’t sound so hard-learned, if the music surrounding it weren’t so imaginative. Comparing the two releases, it’s clear that Calexico and Iron & Wine have found a way over the years to leave a little more mystery in the words and let the music provide more of the clues.

The masterful songwriting is the maypole around which the two bands braid their influences and proclivities, and Years to Burn distills the qualities that distinguish Calexico and Iron & Wine as individual artists. If it’s another 14 years until we get to hear them play once more, it’ll be a sin against their talents.