[rating=7.00]
Samuel Beam, better known as Iron and Wine, has now released his fifth studio album Ghost on Ghost and first on Nonesuch Records. On top of changing labels – previous albums were released on Subpop and Warner Bros./4AD – Beam has also changed his approach to songwriting, as stated on the band’s website: “Beam sought to move from what he called the ‘anxious tension’ of his two previous records. ‘This record felt like a reward to myself after the way I went about making the last few.”
From the opening track, “Caught in the Briars,” it’s immediately obvious that Ghost on Ghost is distinctly different than previous releases. Beam’s voice is less breathy, and while at no point on this recording is he anywhere close to screaming, he’s definitely not whispering his signature sweet nothings into the microphone, and his “man alone in the woods with his guitar” motif is never present. While it’s impossible to imagine an Iron and Wine album without an acoustic guitar, it’s definitely still there, but this album is not a clinic on playing acoustic like 2009’s Around the Well. Every song employs a full band throughout, many of which have backup singers, and the result is a sort of 70s easy-listening vibe.
“Grace for Saints and Ramblers” the fifth song on the album, has been available for download on iTunes for some time prior to the album’s release date. Jumpy and cheerful, the lead single comes across an ode to everyday American life, as does much of the rest of the album. Mixed into the seemingly casual observations of life in the countryside and their equally casual presentation are bluesy tunes complete with smoky uprights and horn sections. Two-thirds of the way through the album, he gives a reprise of the first track with “Sundown (back in the Briars).”
Ghost on Ghost is definitely new terrain for Iron and Wine, even if 2010’s Kiss Each Other Clean hinted in this direction. Is it possibly a sign of a songwriter coming to maturity and exploring new motivations for writing music besides troubled angst? While it seems unfair to compare artists even to previous versions of themselves, fans expecting a typical Iron and Wine album will be surprised when they hear this one.
These are love songs, for sure, but possibly love songs directed towards the countryside he’s passed through in his travels; it includes several references to different places in the American South; South Carolina, Louisiana, New Mexico, etc. that conjure images of a girl in a river, or young teenagers at a swimming hole. Ghost on Ghost conveys a sense of nostalgia for the summer days he’s seen. Perhaps these days past, and the people and events involved are the ghosts he’s speaking of, and the reminiscent narrator is the ghost writing on them.
