The acoustic tunes released by Sam Beam under the moniker Iron and Wine prove that intelligent music can still be commercially viable. Cerebral albums such as 2002’s The Creek Drank the Cradle resonated with beard-stroking poetry majors and moody Nick Drake fans, but were inoffensive enough for Starbucks sophisticates and the TV-watching masses (Beam’s cover of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” even soundtracked an M&Ms commercial).
New opus The Shepherd’s Dog perpetuates this smarten-up-the-mainstream trend, although the album is a more vibrant, livelier affair. Beam’s familiar breathy croon and stripped-back riffs remain at the forefront, with the main sonic difference being the vast array of musical instruments spicing up Dog’s meandering tempos. Lonely pedal steel, hushed piano and mind-bending sitar are the main colorants, but it’s the funk-bass driving “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog)”—a fantastic slice of straight-up R&B-soul—that’s the disc’s absolute highlight.
In fact, like Beam’s other full-lengths, Dog suffers from long-player ennui: Similar tempos and vocal dynamics produce monotony and tedium as the album progresses, making it ideal only for Sunday-brunch wallpaper or nap time. More chaos and texture in the vein of Neil Young and The Byrds—distressed riffs on “White Tooth Man” in particular conjure the former—would have made Dog much more interesting.
IRON AND WINE
The Shepherd's Dog
** 1/2