Iron and Wine's Sam Beam is an absolute genius. I said so in my review of his stunning Sub Pop debut and I have no problems whatsoever repeating myself here. He's simply a brilliant writer and performer, fusing his staggeringly poetic lyrics to a bed of rolling acoustic guitar, banjo rhythms, and a hushed vocal delivery that is a Nick Drake fan's wet dream. He has only two releases in his young career, but Beam has already made a believer of me for life.
Perhaps it's best to simply let Beam speak for himself. "And how he prays to find a man to blame," Beam whispers on the opening track, "For every sleepless night he spends/And for every well that he warned me of/But wound up falling in/And then for the kids beneath the balcony/Who disregard the rain/To make sure the king won't grant/The dead man one more day/Let's go out and see darling/What shines tonight/And temper your dream about the dying horse/With traffic, noise and light/And somewhere the soft-handed boys/Bleeding hearts, and worker bees/Give to the holy mother begging change/Christ across her knees."
Brilliant stuff.
The Sea and the Rhythm is a 5-track EP and is apparently a somewhat expanded version of a tour-only disc Beam carted around on his recent tour, hoping to tide ravenous fans over until the release of his sophomore full-length early in 2004. These 5 cuts were lifted from the same home recorded sessions as The Creek Drank the Cradle's songs, and they're of such uniformly high quality that it's maddening to think there's still a good album's worth of these recordings gathering dust somewhere in Florida.
Similar sounding releases
2001Amy AnnelleA School of Secret Dangers
1996Jeremy EnigkReturn of the Frog Queen
2005Epic SoundtracksGood Things
2003Damien JuradoWhere Shall You Take Me?
2003Fruit BatsMouthfuls
1998Cat PowerMoon Pix
