Iron & Wine

The Shepherd’s Dog

[4.5/5]

After releasing two stellar EPs in 2005 (including one with alt-country enthusiasts Calexico), lushly bearded singer-songwriter Sam Beam has returned with a third full-length that rivals just about anything in his small but illustrious catalog. This time, he’s expanded his instrumental repertoire considerably, creating a study in measured quietude in which songs drift by like idyllic false memories beneath delicate waves of acoustic guitar, banjo, pedal steel and cello. Lyrically, Beam conjures yet another hypnotic dreamworld populated by the ghosts of half-imagined men, women and children, breathing a kaleidoscope of melodious whispered tones disguised as the best timeworn parables you’ve never heard. Songs like “White Tooth Man,” “Resurrection Fern” and “Boy With A Coin” stand out as instant ethereal highlights, but on “Wolves (Song Of The Shepherd’s Dog),” Beam evokes the precise atmosphere of David Essex’s 1973 hit “Rock On” as if delivering some bizarre trans-Atlantic neo-folk homage/rebuttal. It’s probably not on purpose, but it’d be kinda cool if it was. Elsewhere, the semi-honky-tonk piano stabs of “The Devil Never Sleeps” and opener “Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car” move along at quicker tempos, but Beam generally sounds best when he takes his time to get where he’s going. Luckily, he takes plenty of it here. (SUB POP) J. Bennett



ROCKS LIKE:

Doug Martsch’s Now You Know

Elliott Smith’s From A Basement On The Hill

Mark Lanegan’s Scraps At Midnight