[rating=7.00]
As indie music exploded into the forefront of the music scene in the early aughts, the nerds, misfits, and aspiring banjo players found a musical home. One of the artists at the forefront of the indie vanguard was Sam Beam. Performing under the moniker Iron & Wine, Beam made a name for himself with stark songwriting over minimal instrumental arrangement. After a five year foray into more pop influenced sounds on his major label releases, Beam returns to both his original label, Sub Pop, and a back-to-basics approach to his songwriting on Beast Epic.
Many of the songs on Beast Epic center around a theme of aging and it may very well be that as Beam confronts the joys and sorrows of growing older he has decided to create songs in the style that first brought him to notice fifteen years ago. The album opens with the languid, acoustic “Claim Your Ghost” which serves to set the tone for the first half of the album with its minimal instrumentation as a backdrop to Beam’s strumming and plucking acoustic guitar. “Summer Clouds” is definitely the standout track from the beginning of the album with its musings on finding love and the laments of losing it. “By the end there’s a song we will sing meant for someone else/By the end we leave somewhere too long to ever wander back,” sings Beam during the songs bridge. The second half of the album finds the tempo a little faster and the addition of bright stringed instruments create a lighter feel to this latter half. “Call it Dreaming” starts out the slightly more upbeat second half and is the most notable track on the album for it optimistic lyrics about one’s own mortality. “Last Night” starts with a cacophony of strings that would usually be found on a Punch Brothers album and if there wasn’t a marimba played in the background the listener could be forgiven for thinking it was song from the progressive-bluegrass band.
Eschewing the pop sentiments that seemed to pervade his last few albums, Beast Epic finds Beam writing songs in the sparse, acoustic stylings that made up his early work. Not since 2007’s The Shepard’s Dog has Beam created something that seems so honest and personal. The way that Sam Beam writes lyrics just seem to feel more earnest when set to minimal instrumentation and slower tempos. Whether Beam decided to stick in this vein with future Iron & Wine releases remains to be seen but at least he showed the fans that he still has it in him to create something as beautiful as Beast Epic.
