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Iron and Wine‘s Sam Beam is a man of many guises: from the fey troubadour who gave us the heartbreaking serenade of ‘Jezebel’, to the über political beast that vented his frustrations on album The Shepherd’s Dog.

The Biblical references are still pretty prevalent on his fourth record (even if it is just to call Jesus’ resurrected pal an “emancipated punk” on ‘Me And Lazarus’); and the balladeering ‘Walking Far From Home’ is comfortingly familiar. But there’s a pop-funk hand at work here, fused with acrid jazz (‘Rabbit Will Run’), and furious energy (‘Your Fake Name Is Good Enough For Me’), which makes Kiss Each Other Clean a surprising and majestic triumph. — NME

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If you think Jack White’s given 73-year-old Wanda Jackson a new lease of life, then think again; she’s been kicking up a hot fuss since she ditched that Elvis fella in the mid-’50s.

Tearing through a set of cross-generational standards – from the calypso croon of ‘Rum And Coca Cola’ to outlaw country classic ‘Busted’ and Amy Winehouse’s raunch-fest ‘You Know I’m No Good’, her distinctive squeak’n’growl vocals triumph over White’s unnecessarily embellished, frenetic production and glide across the giddy ‘Thunder On the Mountain’. When Jack finally reins it in on the stripped-back ‘Blue Yodel #6’, it results in the record’s finest and purest moment. — NME

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