Iron & Wine have announced their return with ‘In Your Ocean’, the first taste of the upcoming album ‘Hen’s Teeth’ – listen below.
The project of South Carolina singer-songwriter Sam Beam, Iron & Wine have been active since the early 2000s and have worked alongside the likes of Fiona Apple, Calexico and Jesca Hoop.
The eighth Iron & Wine studio album will be ‘Hen’s Teeth’ and is set to be released via Sub Pop on February 27 – you can pre-order it here.
The first single ‘In Your Ocean’ sees Beam singing about a love so deep that he wants to physically merge with his partner: “Praying for dry ground / Though I only want to drown / When I find myself swimming in your ocean”, Beam sings.
Watch the Spencer Kelly-directed video here:
‘Hen’s Teeth’ has been described as a “sibling record” to the previous Iron & Wine album ‘Light Verse’ in 2024, which was nominated for a Grammy. Produced by Dave Way (Fiona Apple, Jakob Dylan, Sheryl Crow), it sees Beam work alongside his daughter Arden for the first time, with the latter contributing vocals to ‘Roses’, ‘Singing Saw’, ‘Defiance, Ohio’ and ‘Grace Notes’.
The Grammy-winning Americana trio I’m With Her also feature on two tracks on the record, ‘Robin’s Egg’ and ‘Wait Up’.
Beam has explained the meaning of ‘Hen’s Teeth’ as an album title: “To me it suggests the impossible. Hen’s teeth do not exist. And that’s what this record felt like: a gift that shouldn’t be there but it is. An impossible thing but it’s real.”
The ‘Hen’s Teeth’ tracklist is:
- ‘Roses’
- ‘Paper And Stone’
- ‘Robin’s Egg’ (ft. I’m With Her)
- ‘Singing Saw’
- ‘In Your Ocean’
- ‘Defiance, Ohio’
- ‘Wait Up’ (ft. I’m With Her)
- ‘Grace Notes’
- ‘Dates And Dead People’
- ‘Half Measures’
Iron & Wine have also confirmed that they will be playing UK dates later in 2026, although the details are yet to be announced.
Last year, Beam was part of the line-up of a benefit concert celebrating the 20th anniversary of Zach Braff’s indie drama Garden State, which featured Iron & Wine music prominently on its soundtrack.
