Iron and Wine releases new song, announces upcoming album

By Mikael Wood

Jan. 31, 2013 10:31 AM PT

Good news for fans of hushed, rustic indie folk: A new Iron and Wine album is on the way.

Due out April 16, “Ghost on Ghost” will serve as the band’s debut for Nonesuch Records, which with its roster of brainy, roots-oriented types -- think Laura Veirs and the Low Anthem -- certainly seems like a suitable home for Sam Beam’s Texas-based outfit.

Only, wait. Hold up: Judging by “Lovers’ Revolution,” an album track posted on YouTube on Thursday, Iron and Wine is no longer in the rustic-indie-folk business; the new song feels more like some kind of post-beatnik coffee-shop-jazz experiment, complete with jaunty piano, honking saxophone and words about the government and laughing gas.

In a statement, Beam said: “Ghost on Ghost” reflects his determination to move beyond the “anxious tension” of the band’s last two albums: 2011’s “Kiss Each Other Clean” and 2007’s “The Shepherd’s Dog.” “This record felt like a reward to myself after the way I went about making the last few,” he said.

Produced by veteran Iron and Wine collaborator Brian Deck, the album contains appearances by a handful of jazz-associated players, including Rob Burger, Steve Bernstein and Brian Blade, whose killer drumming a few years ago with Daniel Lanois’ group Black Dub has Pop & Hiss eager to hear how he might have funked up Beam’s situation.

Listen to “Lovers’ Revolution” below.