Iron & Wine - Around the Well
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Music CD Cover Artist: Iron & Wine Brand: 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
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| Used | Used Usually ships in 1-2 business days | $4.25 |
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Free Music Notes for Around the Well Album
Free Music Review: Welcome addition, even if overly long
Hit: 4 Stars
The improbable and unexpected succuss of Iron and Wine's most recent album, 2007's "The Shepherd's Dog", is the culmination of a long steady road upwards. The once-one-man-band behind Sam Beam has achieved major recongition, and more, in the indie-music scene, which lead the band's record label to the vaults for more material to release while we await a proper follow-up to "The Shepherd's Dog".
"Around the Well (2 CDs; 23 tracks; 93 min.) is neatly divided up in two halves: CD 1 (11 tracks; 41 min.) brings tunes from the early days, meaning just Sam Beam and his acoutic guitar, generally songs so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The opener "Dearest Forsaken" is as representative as anyting from this collection. It's good background music when you're reading a book, but to me it doesn't warrant much repeated listening. CD 2 (12 tracks; 52 min.) is much more interesting as it brings latter-days Iron and Wine, meaning Sam with an actual backing band. By far the best tracks on here for me are "Carried Home", with beautiful harmonizing vocals (sort of reminding me of early CS&N), and the 9+ min. epic closer "The Trapeze Swinger".
In all, this is a welcome, if perhaps overlong, addition to the Iran and Wine catalog. I will generally stick to CD 2, but that's just my personal taste. Given the nature of the songs, it's paramount to have the lyrics to follow along, and the booklet indeed does include the lyrics to about 3/4 of the songs. No rhyme or reason why the other songs' lyrics are missing. I saw Iron and Wine in concert at last year's Bonnaroo Music Festival. The band put on a terrific set, focusing primarily on tracks from "The Shepherd's Dog". Seeing the massive attendance for their set just made me wonder how amazing it is that Iron and Wine has become so successful.