Cover albums usually announce themselves with quotation marks—a little too faithful, a little too knowing, almost as if they were walking on eggshells. Luckily for the music world, Making Good Time, the newest EP from Sam Beam (Iron and Wine) and Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses), erases those marks. These versions don’t sound like borrowed songs so much as reclaimed territory, smoothed down to suit their own grain. U2’s hymn, Foreigner’s power ballad, even Kendrick Lamar’s sleek “Luther” – each one is stripped of its neon casing and rebuilt with wood, smoke, and open air.

The first track on the EP is “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2. The cover opens with quiet control: guitars clean and slightly muted, fingerpicked with gentle precision so each note resonates without rushing. Drums are understated—brushes on the snare and light taps on the tom—keeping time without ever forcing it. Beam and Bridwell’s voices weave together naturally, overlapping in subtle harmonies, carrying the song’s yearning with restraint. A low, steady bass hum grounds the track, giving it depth, while the piano’s quiet resonance pulls the melody forward in soft arcs. The anthem’s longing remains, but it feels intimate and focused, like a conversation in a dimly lit room. This track establishes the EP’s blueprint: familiar songs stripped to essentials, instruments conversing in a magical, almost ethereal melody, with every texture allowed to breathe.

Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” cover slows to a measured, almost tactile ease and moves like a quiet reveal. The moment I hit play, I am drawn in by its subtle tension. The guitars flicker sharp and sly, the bass hums with a kind of velvet arrogance yet thoughtful, and the harmonies play with each other like strangers too cool to admit they’ve already locked eyes. It is nostalgia in a classic and elegant way—a familiar song draped in new silk, daring you to lean closer.

On the third track, Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is” arrives huge, and Beam and Bridwell definitely don’t flinch from its weight. This is a song that could swallow you whole, and yet, here I am sitting with it like an old friend who suddenly knows something about me I didn’t expect to reveal. There’s a tension in it—somewhere between nostalgia and curiosity—and I can’t tell if I’m moved or just impressed by how audacious it feels to take something so monumental and make it feel so intimate. I catch myself laughing at the sheer daring of it, the way it insists on existing in two worlds at once: massive, iconic, impossible, and yet, somehow, quietly personal. By the end, I realize I’m feeling caught in it, fully aware, unguarded, and strangely delighted by it.

By the time “More Than This” rolls around, I can’t help but stop what I’m doing. Beam and Bridwell have taken a song I thought I knew and made it feel like it’s happening right now. I notice small shifts in the melody and phrasing, things that make me rethink the song rather than just hear it. There is a soft confidence in what they’re doing that doesn’t shout—it just exists, and I find myself appreciating it, simply sitting with it and letting it land.

“Ketchum, ID” is the kind of song it’s easy to get lost in. It is raw and gut-wrenching yet hopeful somehow, and their version of this song encapsulates this very well. Their harmonies intertwine in moments that feel effortless but precise, and the repetition of certain lines doesn’t feel redundant. Each return reshapes the meaning, as if the song is circling back to something it needs me to notice. A subtle shift in pitch, a hesitation in timing, a slight change in emphasis—these are the details that make familiar words ache differently, making me aware of my own reactions to them.

Making Good Time is quiet, precise, and unpretentious. Bridwell and Beam don’t just cover the songs—they inhabit them. Every harmony, every pause, feels considered, letting familiar melodies land differently and making you notice things you’ve missed before. By the end, one thing is clear: this is a record that lives because it listens.

Band Of Horses + Iron & Wine Co-Headline Tour

9/18  Seattle, WA @ Marymoor Park
9/19  Eugene, WA @ The Cuthbert Amphitheater
9/20  Portland, OR @ McMenamins Grand Lodge
9/22  Saratoga, CA @ The Mountain Winery
9/23  San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
9/24  Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
9/26  Del Mar, CA @ The Sound at Del Mar
9/27  Las Vegas, NV @ Bel-Aire Backyard
9/28  Chandler, AZ @ Gila River Resorts & Casinos – Wild Horse Pass
9/30  Flagstaff, AZ @ Pepsi Amphitheater
10/2  Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues Anaheim
10/3  Santa Barbara, CA @ The Arlington Theatre

Order Making God Time by Iron and Wine and Ben Bridwell HERE