Photo Credit: Craig Kief

Iron & Wine has released “Anyone’s Game,” the third preview track from the forthcoming project Light Verse. In this latest selection from Sam Beam’s first full-length Iron & Wine release in over seven years, the esteemed singer-songwriter once again demonstrates his stylistic range; turning from the gentle, ethereal sunshowers of “You Never Know” and the soul-stirring retrospective amble of “All in Good Time,” Beam’s duet with Fiona Apple, the new track is an insistent, percussive anthem, driving home a wide-eyed existential tribute to life at large.

On “Anyone’s Game,” a plucky, spirited, full-bodied acoustic arrangement unfurls from a steadily stomping backbeat, propelling the listener ahead as Beam observes the wonder, chance, peaks and pitfalls of life from 30,000 feet. In his inimitable lyrical style, at once broadly poetic and deeply rooted in embodied experience, Beam sings that “Anybody born knows how to play this little game,” finding beauty in the complex arc of our unavoidable arrival and departure end presenting it with an undeniable glow.

This release is coupled with a playfully inventive stop-motion music video directed by Callum Scott-Dyson. On his process and intention, the animator shares, “I used card cutouts in terms of the stop motion style, hand drawing the elements before cutting out and animating them. I wanted the video to explore themes of evolution, the cyclical nature of life, falling in love and break ups, as well as life sometimes feeling like a game of chance.” Watch the eye-opening visual journey below.

Light Verse will release on April 26 via Sub Pop. The project figures Beam alongside an ensemble composed of guitarist David Garza, keyboardist Tyler Chester, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, percussionists Beth Goodfellow, Griffin Goldsmith and Kyle Crane and strings from Paul Cartwright. Beam produced the album, and Dave Way joined to engineer. Iron & WIne will celebrate this landmark release with a North American tour this summer; visit ironandwine.com/tours/ for tickets and more information.