Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
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CD Details
Artist: Iron & WineEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2007-09-25
Music Label: Sub Pop
Soundtracks:
- Pagan Angel And a Borrowed Car
- White Tooth Man
- Lovesong Of the Buzzard
- Carousel
- House By the Sea
- Innocent Bones
- Wolves (Song Of the Shepherd's Dog)
- Resurrection Fern
- Boy With a Coin
- The Devil Never Sleeps
- Peace Beneath the City
- Flightless Bird, American Mouth
Music reviews of The Shepherd's Dog
Music Review: A Masterpiece
Rating: 5 Stars
For a while I thought I might be getting old. I'm only 23, but I can't seem to get fully away from music of the past. My first love-at-first-sight (or listen) was Pink Floyd; I became obsessed with the great abstract lyricism (mostly pre Dark Side) of Roger Waters and the imaginative solos of David Gilmour (who is still my all-time favorite guitarist), as well as the coordinated efforts of Wright and Mason. Their music was not flashy - the parts were usually simple, but put together and stylized in a way that made them revolutionary and an absolute pleasure to listen to. I never fell in love the same way until I heard "Boy with a Coin" on a local college radio station, and I knew I should explore the rest of the album. So I did, and it didn't let me down, and it exceeded my expectations. I guess I wasn't getting old after all, but there just has not been enough exposure to great artists like Sam Beam.
As much of the previous reviewers have said, the album is great from start to finish, just like a classic Pink Floyd album. I cannot detect any tracks that were thrown on there just to make it a complete album. I believe that even if it is not now, it will in time be considered a great classic of this era of rock. Every track is unique and is an essential part of the complete album. Right now, my favorite track is "Carousel." It's just one of those tracks where you can just close your eyes and let it take you away. The vocal rotary effect is perfectly placed, and I'm glad Sam seemed to embrace more effects and extra instruments than before, not only on Carousel but in every other track.
I just can't say enough how much of a talent Beam has for songwriting, singing and instrumentation. What I like so much about this album is how everything seems placed so well. There is no "look how many notes I can play per second" or "look at this cool trippy digital sound I can make."
The lyrics are great. It's kind of funny, because for me, I consider a song to have good lyrics and singing when I don't really listen to the lyrics, I just listen to the whole musical scene, like standing back and looking at a landscape. I can do that with this album, but I can't do that with a lot of bands, as they either try too hard to be abstract and metaphorical, sing about something like running through the halls of their high school, or throw a flashy or out of place guitar solo in my face. I consider this great lyricism a rare talent, and Beam has it, not to mention that he has a great singing voice, and utilizes it with rich vocal textures and harmonies. Instrumentally, Beam has the same knack that Gilmour does (did I mention that I like Pink Floyd?) of making it sound like the backing music and the solo are pieces of a puzzle that only sound good with the other present.
To sum it up, if you're having trouble finding modern music to fall in love with, that retains the musicianship of the classic rock era, then buy this album. I'm glad I'm not really getting old.
Description of The Shepherd's Dog
Iron and Wine's last release (not including the collaborative In the Reins EP which featured songs by Iron and Wine's Sam Beam and performances by both Iron and Wine and Calexico together) was 2005's Woman King, a 6-song EP which distinguished itself from its predecessors with a deepening integration of spiraling, dense opuses with intimate confessionals. On The Shepherd's Dog this integration is complete. Sam Beam has confessed to finding spiritual inspiration in Tom Waits' pièce de résistance, Swordfishtrombones, an album with which Waits upended his previous strategies and forged a new musical language for himself. Recorded by Sam with the assistance of longtime producer Brian Deck and engineer Colin Studebaker, The Shepherd's Dog succeeds in accomplishing a similar cathartic recasting of the artist's intentions. The arrangements here are kaleidoscopic and rich. "White Tooth Man" rocks with a desperate, menacing intensity while "Boy with a Coin", the album's first single, is darkly playful with a handclap hook tumbling under its cascading melody. The whole album breathes. Its seductive rhythms percolate and undulate, from the Psych-Bhangra-redux of "Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car" to the album's last dance a waltz "Flightless Bird, American Mouth". Compositionally, it is Iron and Wine's most ambitious and accomplished recording to date. It's also the most satisfying.Following a one-record hiatus to collaborate with Tucson collective Calexico on 2005's In The Reins, Iron & Wine (Sam Beam, that is) recoils to the earnestness and intimacy that embodied his first two records, his cerebral words and phrases tunneled beneath an orchestra of guitar, banjo, keyboards, and strings. More definitive than ever, the rhythm and percussion complement Beam's voice, a lulling, almost eerie tone that occasionally recalls John Lennon's early solo work, especially on delicate tracks like the bluesy "Wolves (Songs of the Shepherd's Dog" and "Carousel," with its veiled references to Iraq. Those raised on the lo-fi routine of Beam's earlier work will find rawness and sanctity in the more upbeat selections: The CSN folk-rock of "House by the Sea" and "Boy with a Coin" and the atmospheric beauty of "Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car" and Shepherd's best song, "Lovesong of the Buzzard." With an organ swirling about and a slide guitar adding gentle flourishes, Beam concedes that "no one is the savior they would like to be," without realizing that, when it comes to fluent music and pristine storytelling, perhaps he is. --Scott Holter
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