Iron & Wine: The Shepherd's Dog

Iron & Wine: The Shepherd's Dog
Sub Pop: 9/25/2007

Iron & Wine's Sam Beam was clearly changed by his collaboration with Calexico, the gorgeous In the Reins EP. While his first two albums, The Creek Drank the Cradle and Our Endless Numbered Days, was fairly simple acoustic folk, his new album is robust and complex. Beam's talents for writing infectious melodies and potent lyrics are still intact, but there is a new emphasis on dense arrangements and elaborate African- and Caribbean-inspired rhythms. There are even a few glossy production tricks I never imagined showing up on an Iron & Wine record, like the vocal distortion on "Carousel". These techniques never detract from the record or come across as contrived. The extraordinary amount of effort Beam has clearly spent on this meticulously crafted record has paid off. The Shepherd's Dog is hands-down his finest effort to date.