The Shepherd's Dog

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2009-06-20 rating:
Iron and Wine is a winner!
There's not a weak track on this album. A real find. Thoroughly recommended if you go for a beaty, tough-edged folky feel with great lyrics. Varied and interesting stuff - I want more!

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review by: date: 2008-09-05 rating:
undeniably good
The best new artist in this sphere of music is Nick Worrall. Google him and get his debut album for FREE. Incredible.

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review by: campaign for real music date: 2008-02-17 rating:
Iron And Very Fine
South Carolina-born, Texas-based Sam Beam's third studio album as Iron And Wine is one which has split his fanbase right through the middle. Described by some fans as comperable to 'when Dylan went electric', The Shepherd's Dog is the sound of an artist evolving, expanding, creating and refusing to be defined by his previous work - and it's wonderful. Always interesting, this piece of work gathers folk influences ranging from the late 60s/early 70s (Simon Garfunkel, Tim Buckley, Nick Drake) to the contemporary (Elliott Smith) and combines them with a vision of the unlimited and unconstrained, both in terms of structure and instrumentation, resulting in a dizzying dozen tracks of intriguing artistry inspired by, according to Sam Beam, "political confusion". br / br /Highlights of the album include the stomping opener, 'Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car', the folk/country, acoustic guitar-driven simple beauty of 'Resurrection Fern' and the spiraling, almost tribal-chant-like 'Boy With A Coin', but it would be difficult task selecting the weakest track on this album, being a work of consistency. In fact, where individual songs don't perhaps work for you, they are never short of interesting and always capture your attention, sometimes even drawing you into a trance-like state as you're captivated by the rhythms, the looping music and the fact that you're having your soul massaged by the soft, often self-harmonising vocals. Even if this album's lyrics are a tad opaque, ambiguous and confusing, to me that's part of Sam Beam's appeal. Sometimes the very best puzzles are the ones you just can't solve.

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review by: date: 2008-01-10 rating:
Exceptional
This was the first Iron Wine offering I heard, so I came to it without any baggage about the purity of the earlier work. Having since heard some of it I don't think I would have bothered seeking out more, but THIS, this is exceptional. br / br /`The Shepherd's Dog' manages to be both hushed and lush at the same time - but with a sinewy edge too. The singing is an urgent whisper, the lyrics are elusive and evocative and weave common themes through the different songs. The playing is top notch and the arrangements inventive; there are layers and layers of sound with a web of instruments playing off each other - slide guitar vs dub piano at one point. There is some fun with tape loops and linking material, but these always enhance rather than annoy, teasingly delaying the start of the next song. br / br /And the songs - all great tunes. The album has an overall unifying sound, but the individual songs feature a range of styles, even dipping into a grin-inducing piano boogie. After the first two songs I knew I liked it, when the Highway 61 organ swirled into the second verse of `Lovesong of the Buzzard' I knew I loved it. By the time `Resurrection Fern' was over, it was jostling the all time favourites list. br / br /Stand out tracks are too numerous to name - virtually all of them. It's one of those albums where as each song ends, you think "oh yeah, now there's that one... and then there's that one..." and so on. br / br /I'll admit I didn't hear too many new albums in 2007, but I would be surprised of there were many as extraordinary, intelligent, intriguing and downright catchy as this. br /


review by: hobdon_colbeck date: 2007-11-25 rating:
Yes it is progress
To me this sounds like a realisation of a sound long held within. This could be the result of monetary issues or the fact that he recorded 'Creek Drank the Cradle' next door to his sleeping children (or so I read somewhere). Regardless, this is a great album. It sounds like an artist coming into his own, and fulfilling previously curtailed ideas about what his songs should really sound like. Five stars suggests perfection, which is rare. But at least my rating will boost it's stars overall and hopefully encourage more people to buy it (and make up for the person who gave it two stars; it's only their opinion I suppose...). I think it's wonderful that Iron and Wine's sound has so clearly progressed from early lo-fi americana, which seems to me a finite musial resource. Fantastic.

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