6
Iron & Wine, "Walking Far from Home"
Okay. Well. The new Iron and Wine single is not at all what I had hoped it would be. Rather than return to the whispery voice and acoustic guitar of his earlier records, Sam Beam opts for a wall-of-synth atmospherics and Beach Boys-y harmonies. (Kind of like Grizzly Bear, I guess?) But, hey, actually, I'm liking it more on the second listen than the first. So, vive le difference! I'll need to give it more time. And maybe the hushed tones of "Half Moon" and "Mary Anne" will show up on the album, Kiss Each Other Clean, which comes out in a couple months.
I always wondered what it would look like if John Wilkes Booth had missed, and Lincoln had spent his post-presidency on his psychedelic Downstate peacock farm. And now I know.
the new album is AMAZEBALLS EPIC (though you didn't hear it from me, huh). I quit paying attention around the time Beam hooked up with Calexico (which was good but really not my thing), and instead went back to the creek et al.
But this… this just fucking works. He's a pround bearded popster, not limited anymore by technique, technology or shyness, and just fucking wow. This is Track 1, and it's just so strong, such a march, just what DCFC didn't manage to pull off with "Marching Bands of Manhattan" or much of anything recently. If I was a post-rock band I would cover the shit out of it.
PS Grizzy Bear sucks and 10 years from now you'll all be ashamed of not having noticed. They're he Operation Iraqi Freedom of indie rock.
Excellent to hear! "AMAZEBALLS EPIC" is one of my favorite styles of music. (Or is it an official "subgenre?") I love the first song on the Calexico record, but the rest, yes, fades into less-great to me. And, as I said, "The Shephards Dog" album was really not my cup of tea. So, man, do I want this next album to be good. He is a real favorite of mine, this guy.
That's funny about Grizzly Bear, too. I liked the "Yellow House" record quite a bit. But, while I'm not sure I would compare them yet to a full-scale war launched under the pretenses of falsified intelligence, the most recent album was also not my cup of tea. Annoying, even. And the great collective fawning over it left me scratching my head.
I'm quite loving that, and I can't quite figure out why. I miss the days of the hushed bedroom songs, but really how long could Beam keep doing that?
Word re: Grizzly Bear. I tried and tried to make it work and eventually realized it was them, not me.