Iron & Wine

As fashionable as freak-folk’s been since the early ’00s, there’s no denying Sam Beam’s status as one of indie rock’s most trusted troubadours. With a voice that’s as welcoming as the whispers of a long-lost lover and riffs that trickle like rain off a tin roof, Beam’s Iron & Wine songs are beautiful to the point of being debilitating. Not every one’s as spare and spooky as “Upward Over the Mountain” or “Naked As We Came,” though — as the steady handclaps and temple-thumping drums of “Boy With a Coin” prove, Beam’s ready to tackle mid-tempo rock tracks as well.

And then there’s our Next Steps, a thorough tour of Iron & Wine’s shape-shifting back catalog.

Look, we can’t blame you for assuming that Iron & Wine’s led by a lonesome cabin-dweller who hasn’t seen the sun — or had a proper shave — in weeks, what with the way tracks like “Bird Stealing Bread” and “Passing Afternoon” take on a drifter-in-the-dark tone. Sam Beam’s social skills have led him down several paths, however, from the rich, full band arrangements of The Shepherd’s Dog and the Top 5-cracking Kiss Each Other Clean to collaborations with such fellow indie-rock icons as Calexico (the Bob Dylan cover “Dark Eyes”) and the Shins (“New Slang”).

As for our Deep Cuts, they pair fan favorites with some of Iron & Wine’s choicest EP selections.

Now that Iron & Wine’s a decade into a discography that only gets better with age, one thing’s become abundantly clear: some of Sam Beam’s best work is scattered across a growing stack of filler-free EPs. While Around the Well brings two discs of B-sides and rarities together (the creeping chords of “Swans and the Swimming,” the chilling Flaming Lips cover “Waitin’ for a Superman”), we snuck a hefty handful of other hidden treasures into the following set, including the winding passages of the Woman King EP, the steely backdrop of “Biting Your Tail,” and an electrified Lollapalooza rendition of “Sinning Hands.”

The beard is the first thing that comes to mind. Thicker than chimney smoke and as soft and scratchy as a two-sided sponge, it screams long, blustery winters and souls that are wiser than their years. Which is perfect, really, given the timeless and strikingly tender approach of Sam Beam’s actual Iron & Wine songs. We’re talking everything from the soft-focus snapshots of his bedroom-bred debut — 2002’s The Creek Drank the Cradle LP — to the bold AM radio nods of Kiss Each Other Clean, an album that manages to meld Beam’s shadowy storytelling with shimmering keys. As for Iron & Wine’s buzz-stirring cover of the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights,” it’s been used in an M&M’s commercial and the Garden State soundtrack, thanks to its Southern Gothic spin on synth-pop. Yes, his songs are that good.