Sam Beam about the phrase ‘Years to burn’:

– And the title can encapsulate a lot of things. ‘Years to Burn’ could mean you’re cocky, you’ve got it made. Or, our life is ours to burn, to be inspired. Or you’re burned by life, brutalized. It’s an ambiguous title, because life is complicated. Let’s not talk like teenagers about love, desire, pain, ‘cause we’re not teenagers. And that’s not a bad thing.”

Calexico and Iron & Wine - Years to Burn | City Slang — City Slang

Calexico and Iron & Wine first made an artistic connection with In the Reins, the 2005 EP that brought Sam Beam, Joey Burns and John Convertino together. The acclaimed collaboration introduced both acts to wider audiences and broadened Beam's artistic horizons, but it was the shared experience of touring together in the tradition of Bob Dylan's "Rolling Thunder Revue" that cemented their bond.

In this song, the line following ‘Years to burn, years to burn" is “Our tears hold the light in our eyes”; probably one such example of talking about pain in a more mature, or less teenage way: 'light’ and ‘tears’ can go together, as opposed to the probably less mature and more teenage-y way of stating that there is no light in sadness.