If you were to comb through Sam Beam’s 20-plus-year career as Iron & Wine, you’d encounter forays into everything from country-western twang to flamenco percussion in his catalogue. Yet no matter how ornate the arrangements or compelling the covers, each of his songs can be stripped down to its core elements: his approachable tenor, the depth of his acoustic guitar and the intricate stories he tells with his mastery of both. Hen’s Teeth, his eighth album, is a companion to 2024’s Light Verse, in that Beam and a superlative crew of indie, rock and folk collaborators—including Fiona Apple, who features on the prior album’s duet “All in Good Time”—recorded these songs during a prolific period spent in Laurel Canyon, that hallowed stretch of Los Angeles terrain responsible for some of the most beloved rock and folk of the ’70s. But Hen’s Teeth strikes a more discordant and eccentric chord than its predecessor, with first track “Roses” doubling down on Beam’s poetic wordplay (“Hope knows where to hammer on a heart”) as a gorgeous melody goes from orchestral wonder to sinister din by the end of the track. “In Your Ocean” invokes echoes of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young and other iconic voices, a timeless vibe that continues when Beam is joined by folk all-star trio I’m With Her (Aoife O’Donovan, Sarah Jarosz and Sara Watkins) for “Robin’s Egg”, a slightly psychedelic, paradoxically jubilant recap of a fight with a loved one. Though Beam may be known as a singer-songwriter who thrives as a solo act, Hen’s Teeth demonstrates just how much he loves good company.