Iron & Wine - Around the Well
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Iron & WineBrand: IRON & WINE
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2009-05-19
Music Label: Sub Pop
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Dearest Forsaken
- Morning
- Loud As Hope
- Peng!
- Sacred Vision
- Friends They Are Jewels
- Hickory
- Waitin' For a Superman
- Swans and the Swimming
- Call Your Boys
- Such Great Heights
- Communion Cups and Someone's Coat
- Belated Promise Ring
- God Made The Automobile
- Homeward, These Shores
- Love Vigilantes
- Sinning Hands
- No Moon
- Serpent Charmer
- Carried Home
- Kingdom of the Animals
- Arms of a Thief
- The Trapeze Swinger
Free Music Notes for Around the Well
Free Music Review: Scrapping the Bottom of the Barrel for Gold
Hit: 5 Stars
IRON AND WINE's "AROUND THE WELL" is a great hold-me-over, until Sam Bean and co. finishes up his next new album in the studio. This newest release is a collection of B-sides, iTUNES limited edition releases, soundtrack numbers, and limited edition single releases. Even with these odds and ends from I&W's first three "proper" albums, we are nevertheless hearing some of their best songs. The second CD contains the songs from the sessions for OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS, and SHEPHERDS DOG, my personal favorite albums. I bought a couple of I&W singles, just so I could hear these B-sides. Easily one of the best songs they recorded, KINGDOM OF THE ANIMALS, turned up as a B-side on the "BOY WITH A COIN" single. Its about 6 and a half minutes long, with singing on the first 2.45 minutes of the song, tacked to a coda of long, shimmering sonic sheets hammered from glossimer echoes weaving in and out of infinity. In fact, if one constant fact seems to apply the "SPEPHERDS DOG" outtakes, its their experimental, electronic, psychedelic production and overdubs. These songs also include CARRIED HOME (the other B-side from the BOY WITH A COIN single, with lots of great honky-tonk piano playing), SERPENT CHARMER and ARMS OF THE THIEF. Those last two were to be released on a limited edition Single in 2008, to back "LOVESONG OF THE BUZZARD". The release was pulled at the last moment. SERPENT CHARMER is another song, with a lot of squeeky electronica smothered over top, that really satisfies. It merges the "freak folk" style, with a mood that's low key, languid, and dreamy. These songs were pulled from SHEPHERDS DOG, for no reason of quality, but rather cos Sam Bean writes with quality and quanity. Both CDs from AROUND THE WELL, would have been album releases, in a more perfect, 1960s world. The second CD ends with THE TRAPEZE SWINGER, recorded during OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS. (But much more overdubbed than anything you hear on that album.) Like the problem DYLAN had while recording "SAD EYED LADY", how do you keep the audience's attention, while you give a 9 minute long poetry recital? After a few verses, when the guitar-vocal overdubs-bass-hand drum soundscape stops providing enough sonic excitment, the bass player goes nuts and jams out (didnt work) on one verse, with each additional verse attempting something different, like piano overdubbed to resemble a viola/cello repeating figure, then at the song's end, a recorder player add tons of flipped out, atonal squeaks and squaks. That song's orchestration didnt work, but as an experiment, its fine, and no doubt will grow on me. It did work well, to close out the album tho, both because of its lenght, and because it seemed to show a limit to how freakish IRON AND WINE will allow their "freakfolk" to move.
The song COMMUNION CUTS & SOMEONES COAT, (B-side for PASSING AFTERNOON single) is where the break occurs, between the lyrical style of his earlier work which seemed to center more on emotional issues like Family ties, core memories, evocative songs of his past, girlfriends, etc. On IRON AND WINE's second album, their orchestrations filled out considerably. Sam Bean's lyric styles became much more surreal, dealing with spirituality, in a visionary sense with this avant guarde, "beatnik" quality mixed to a "southern USA" lyricism. So naturally, the same sound is found on the outtakes from the second album, on CD two of AROUND THE WELL. Totally great songs, that span a period of transistion between two styles, of CD ONE's pure, dreamy folk music, and the mellow, acoustic freakfolk that opens the second CD of this collection. Each of the songs work well, and the whole second CD hangs together as complete statement, even tho the statement is partily "CAREER RETROSPECTIVE". Many of these songs from the "ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS" sessions, first appeared on rare "VARIOUS ARTIST" complilation, and the others on iTUNES only. I might have liked to see his version of Dylan's "DARK EYES" included on the second CD, if only to balance the four cover songs on the first CD.
The first album is filled with more unknown, rare tracks, except for "SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS", the first song most people heard Sam Bean sing, from the soundtrack to GARDEN STATE. These songs on the first CD are very cohesive in style, even tho Sam Bean plays four covers, including a very muted, ultra sedated sounding version of The Flaming Lip's WAITIN ON A SUPERMAN. (its just so cool tho.) The whole first CD uses finger picked guitar arpeggios, slide guitar, and often a third guitar, and some occasional harmony, to orchestrate the numbers. A lot has been released from IRON AND WINE's early folk period, including the EP "THE SEA & THE RHYTHM", with five songs on it. Combine that with this FIRST CD from AROUND THE WELL, and people who love these early, whispered "love" songs, sung ultra legato, will be happy as cats in catnip. AROUND THE WELL shows the transistions in style, that make each IRON AND WINE album sound as tho they were from different bands. This is a very important band. The fact that a meal made from assorted leftovers, tastes like the most delicious of smorgasborgs, and not a bad pot luck diner, is proof of how much talent exists in this act. I'm glad it's an overview, so those who only appreciate ONE STYLE or THE OTHER STYLE, will get to sample IRON AND WINE in all its stylistic complexity. For the fan base, its just another MUST HAVE release. I'm really excited for the next real release of new songs, instead of this compilation. If his leftovers taste THIS good, i'd love to know whats cooking right now. I guess we're getting that meal for Christmas. For now, I'm totally satisfied with this summer picnic of major and minor I&W masterpieces.
Around the Well Poster
This double CD/triple LP collects songs ranging from out-of-print to never-before-released and spans Iron And Wine's earliest sessions which yielded the band's debut (2002's "The Creek Drank The Cradle") through material recorded for 2007's "The Shepherd's Dog". The double disc is broken into two sections. The first is an assortment of hushed home recordings, unedited and raw, and the second highlights moments captured in the studio with the help of other musicians, friends, and engineers.Alternative Rock Music CDs
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