Iron & Wine | Calexico /// “History Of Lovers” /// In The Reins
What You Should Have Heard, 2000-2009, day two: While Sam Beam and Calexico have recorded some lovely, intelligent Americana miles apart from one another, there’s a more instant, quiet rapture to enjoy in the latter fleshing out the former’s songwriting. Such winning alchemy propels their slender, seven-track collaboration past its rustic trappings and into emotive landscapes. The varied folk instrumentation (from mandatory slide guitar to surprising soulful sax) is lovingly crafted, flexibly antique. My senior year at Williams, I shared a suite separated by a common bathroom with a good friend; he and I both owned copies of this small miracle and would notice it playing faintly next door. We independently discovered that In The Reins was also an oddly perfect hookup record (though with its scant running time, it was wise to leave it on repeat), and eventually the strains of its dramatically Mexican opening, “He Lays In The Reins,” became a euphemism heard through walls. You can imagine how I reacted to the girl who had it on vinyl. For all this album sounds unearthed from red Texan dust, I would hope it doesn’t get left there.
