Iron and Wine, The Shepherd’s Dog

With most artists, as they develop, their subject matter and the tone of their songs usually becomes more serious. Sam Beam, on the other hand, has taken the opposite path. The new Iron and Wine album, The Shepherd’s Dog, is actually less serious in tone than previous albums. Beam says that this album was an attempt to discover a more true and personal sound for himself, like Tom Waits did with Swordfishtrombones — although I should note that where Tom Waits was looking for something that was significantly less conventional on Swordfishtrombones, the sound of the new Iron and Wine is significantly more conventional.

First off, the material on the new album is much poppier than the original stuff. Where before the melodies seemed shaped by the words, now it’s the other way around, with soaring melodies and harmonies that carry the songs to new places. “Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car” has a catchy melody and an vocal arrangement that adds a lot to the song, and “Carousel,” a ballad with processed vocal and electric piano, could almost be a less-pretentious Pink Floyd song. The melodies and harmonies in the old material weren’t as developed, and the sound and feel was darker and more lonesome. Which is not to say the older songs were worse, by any means — they were just different.

The presence and power of the band does a lot to change things, as well. The sound of the band and the arrangements are much more positive and uplifting than before, with a wider range of instruments on the record. They even groove, which is a rare thing for a singer-songwriter to have in a band; the band sounds like a alt-rock Greatful Dead. On the earlier stuff, the focus was on the voice and the song, not the accompaniment, but here the band adds as much as the songs.

Sam Beam has made an impressive transition; it took Jeff Tweedy nine years to make the transition that Sam Beam’s gone through in only about five years. Some people will undoubtedly want the old Iron and Wine back, but undoubtedly more people will enjoy the new, confident, poppier Iron and Wine.