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Album Review: Iron & Wine, "The Shepherd's Dog" (Sub Pop)
Building on the bones of 2005's rhythmic "Woman King" EP, Iron & Wine 's new release, "The Shepherd's Dog," finds Sam Beam and company extending the experimental mood and instrumentation over the course of an entire album.
In doing so, Beam recaptures the originality and intimacy that sparked a thousand copycat acts following his first two watershed releases.
No longer treading in the familiar steps of the oft-compared, kindred folkie, Will Oldham, Iron & Wine has unmistakably moved on to an entirely new palette of sounds and textures. This new array of instrumental choices keenly affects the DNA of not only the new material, but that of the entity that is Iron & Wine itself, breaking free of past self-imposed genre ceilings.
Like the title track off 2005's "Woman King," the first single off "The Shepherd's Dog," "Boy With a Coin," blends traditional folk and tribal polyrhythms with a hypnotic hook, all tied together with Beam's trademark whisper croon. The album feels as at home in the city as it does the country--a feat rarely pulled off so well.
