ARTiST: Iron & Wine
TiTLE: The Shepherd's Dog
LABEL: Sub Pop
GENRE: Indie
TiME: 49:51 min
SiZE: 67,0 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: Sep-19-2007
RELEASE DATE: Sep-24-2007
WEBSiTE: n/a
Track List:
01. Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car 04:33
02. White Tooth Man 03:57
03. Lovesong Of The Buzzard 04:26
04. Carousel 04:02
05. House By The Sea 04:22
06. Innocent Bones 03:43
07. Wolves (Song Of The Shepherd's Dog) 04:57
08. Resurrection Fern 04:50
09. Boy With A Coin 04:06
10. The Devil Never Sleeps 02:07
11. Peace Beneath The City 04:45
12. Flightless Bird, American Mouth 04:03
Release Notes:
Deeply sensual, richly pastoral, The Shepherd's Dog
is a slow-burning late summer treat. Sam Beam's
second album is assured and confident. Beam (his nom
de disque taken from a dietary supplement named Beef
Iron & Wine), a former professor of Film and
Cinematography at Miami International University of
Art & Design, is something of a word-of-mouth find.
Some may know him from his work with Calexico;
others from his cover of the Postal Service's "Such
Great Heights" which has been used in various
adverts and in the 2004 cult hit movie, Garden
State.
Understatement here is the order of the day. Beam
said in a recent interview that The Shepherd's Dog
is 'not a political propaganda record, but it's
definitely inspired by political confusion, because
I was really taken aback when Bush got re-elected'.
This confusion of an America adrift is addressed
throughout the album, yet never at the expense of a
cracking tune. Some of these songs have been around
for a while: "Boy With A Coin", "House by the Sea"
and "The Love Song Of The Buzzard" have been in his
live set. The late night elegance of "Carousel",
musically a cross between "Entangled" by Genesis and
"Runaways" by XTC is eerie and affecting. The
interlocking hi-life guitars of "Wolves (Song Of The
Shepherd's Dog)" and the rambunctious opener "Pagan
Angel And A Borrowed Car" show the breadth of BeamÆs
musical palette.
Soothing and sinister at the same time, The
Shepherd's Dog deserves to sit sweetly in the year
end polls.