after listening to iron & wine's new one three times last night and once this morning, here's what i think:

it's a lot more eclectic (for his style). his sound keeps evolving as it has from the creek, afternoon and woman king where you can hear the added layers each time. here he goes as far as using a sitar, handclaps, djembes, ... the piano/organ is much more present than in the past. so that makes it interesting and challenging to like.

yet there are still a couple of songs that retain the original sound (Peace beneath the City, Resurrection Fern)

there are several songs i already like: Boy With a Coin, House by the Sea. Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's song) is pretty good but Chamberk's not wrong in saying that it's kinda all over the place near the end (Calexico is supposedely (sp?) featured on this one).

Overall, i was prepping myself for a disappointment but i think it's going to be more of a grower and i love the fact that it's got so many layers and will need many listens to uncover all of them. the thought that keeps coming back to me is "a challenging listen for someone who loves I&W as much as I do"

As I've noted earlier, I hated this album the first time I listened to it and rather liked it the second time I listened to it, so I'm gonna have to give it more time to come to a clear conclusion. That said, I think I'm gonna end up liking it quite a bit. There's a lot more percussion than I think there's ever been on an Iron and Wine album, and it's just got a different feel to it than anything Beam's done before. It's weird, but after Beam's first two albums, I figured he'd be a guy I'd always love but that would always get dogged by critics for doing the same thign album after album. Turns out to be a lot more complicated story.

I'll have more to say once I become familiar with it.

where did you guys find the album?

Some guy linked to it on another forum I go to. I'm sure the link's dead now though. I got it over a week ago.

another forum? would that be good for the great metacritic migration? I'll keep looking for iron and wine.

The Woman King EP was astonishing in so many ways. Besides being one of the highest quality EPs of the decade, it showed amazing artistic growth. Sure, Sam Beam made good, pretty songs and even knockouts like "The Trapeze Swinger", but you only need so many Nick Drake albums. And here this guy is fitting lush instrumentation to his music and it fits flawlessly. I can't wait for this album!

I thought that The Creek Drank the Cradle was a subtle masterpiece, so simple, yet so lush and relaxing, and i really want to get this album and i can't wait to listen.

How do you guys like the cover art to this one? It's one of my favorite covers in a while, probably the best of the year.

The album art is excellent. I have to say the art on the actual CD is not very impressive though. Which is sad, because all the past Iron&Wine Albums have had really cool disks. Creek Drank The Cradle is perhaps my favorite CD art ever.

After all the hoopla, my first listen has left me quite unimpressed.

quote:

Originally posted by Maximum Jack:
After all the hoopla, my first listen has left me quite unimpressed.

This might not be a good thing bro, but repeated listens should do the trick. Listen to it a few more times, maybe with something in between, which should do the trick.

I think it fits under the category of a "grower." You know, I never really liked his first two albums too much but this one he keeps that great songwriting and craftsmanship and just adds a thicker sound. Give it a few more spins.

I'm on my first listen right now, and it seems okay, but like MJ, I don't get the hoopla. Something about Beam's vocal delivery (or lack of) still really grates on me.

I meant to add: But I reserve the right to drastically change my mind. I've been on the Sam Beam bandwagon since the beginning, so I'll keep listening.

I think this is one instance where branching out and experimenting hasn't really added much to the music. There is a lot of instrumentation that fills up this record, but if you ask me all of his previous recordings were already full enough, mainly due to Sam's vocals being the centerpiece of the music. Here the vocals seem to get lost amongst the music, and are in a few instances purposefully muddied.

All that aside, the album does hold together nicely and the songs with all their varied production flow well from one to the next. His songwriting is still as good as ever and I'm sure I'll listen to it plenty, but I'm not sure if it will ever do what the stuff on Woman King does for me

I loooovvve this album. Definitely his most completely work. Very Bryter Lyter.

Okay I've had a couple days and about six good listens to The Shepherd's Dog. As I suspected, I'm now loving it. I think my favorite song is "Boy with a Coin," but "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" is as good a closer as Sam Beam has produced since the sublime "Muddy Hymnal." I love all the extra textures on this album and even though it is a (comparatively) heavy-handed production, it still sounds just as warm as his early records.

It wasn't an immediate enjoyment for me, unlike all past I&W releases. I'm finding it a slow grower but very rewarding when it does grow on me. At first I was bummed that Beam's fragile voice seemed buried. But repeated listens appear to at least draw out the best of his voice in whatever track I had troubles with. I particularly like "Carousel", the imagery and the music which reminds me of Allen Toussaint's "Southern Nights". And I Love the line from "The Devil Never Sleeps"- 'Everybody's bitching, there's nothing on the radio'.

Great highlights Crazed. I'm glad you finally got the album. When everyone said it was more "full band" and "experiemental" sounding I was bracing for something crazy. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't tread too far off the original Iron and Wine path. My wife, who is a casual music fan (as in she listens to thing I play for her) said she didn't think it was different from his past work at all.

quote:

Originally posted by crazed:
And I Love the line from "The Devil Never Sleeps"- 'Everybody's bitching, there's nothing on the radio'.

That is definetely one cool song, that's the one they performed on Letterman last night.

Highlight for me is the chorus of "Flightless Bird, American Mouth." Beam sings the high notes so sweetly.