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Album Details

• Artist: Iron And Wine
• Album: Our Endless Numbered Days
• Label: Sub Pop
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-06-18

Media

Sam Beam is riding high and if releases such as Our Endless Numbered Days keep coming out of him we will indeed see a new Bob Dylan for our time. You may be turned off by how people fanatically refer to Iron and Wine as one of the best things ever but you have to listen to one of their albums in order to understand. The honesty that Sam is able to personify in his music is amazing. While this sort of thing has been done before, I&W's music sounds so unique with restrained energy behind it. You could easily rock out with any of the songs on Numbered Days but instead Beam opts to deliver them ever so gently. The production on this album is even warmer than their debut. I think he must have made the move into a honest to goodness studio. Try out "Sodom, South Georgia" on for size and you feel that Sam is telling you some deep, dark secret that he has never told anyone before. The arrangements are acoustic and sparse making the songs seem that much more personal. Take those arrangements and put on Sam's beautiful voice. "Free Until They Cut Me Down" sounds like it could easily be turned into a blues/bluegrass jam of some sort. The stories are there too if you would like to get into the meanings. If you fell in love with Creek Drank the Cradle and are scared that this album won't live up to your expectations, forget about it, move on and try this one out. I think it's better by leaps and bounds but that is after about 10 listens. It grows with every spin. "Naked As We Came" is one of my favorites on the album.

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