Iron & Wine - Light Verse 2024 Tour

CRITIC’S PICK: Even though Sam Beam (aka Iron & Wine) has altered his style over a career now in its 22nd year, his hushed voice and intimate songs continue a thread started on 2002s debut. His newest, this year’s Light Verse (the outing is titled The Light Verse 2024 Tour), was recorded with a small combo and later embellished with subtle orchestration. He even shifts to pop in the upbeat and bubbly (at least for him), “Sweet Talk.” And when he delivers an epic like the lush, complex, widescreen “Tears that Don’t Matter,” (at seven minutes the disc’s longest selection) with its often dissonant strings and expansive tableau, he reaches new heights in an already acclaimed career. — Hal Horowitz