Iron & Wine - Woman King

Genre rock Publisher Sub Pop Records External Links Official Site Sub Pop

Sam Beam, better known as Iron & Wine, has always been the odd man out. His albums, 2002's The Creek Drank The Cradle and last year's Our Endless Numbered Days, are just as good as any of his indie-rock counterparts. Yet it is Ben Gibbard and his projects which decorate the walls of teen dramas, and The Shins who get named dropped by Natalie Portman in Garden State. True, Iron & Wine had a song on the Garden State soundtrack, but it was a cover of a song originally written for Gibbard's Postal Service. Is it Beam's bearded appearance (sort of a "creepy outdoorsman" vibe) which doesn't allow him to grab the success his peers have? Or is he destined to always be a bridesmaid?

On his latest EP, Woman King, Iron & Wine make yet another display of excellent songwriting. Through six songs, Beam works his whisper soft voice over lovely acoustic guitars creating beautiful pictures and awesome landscapes. The disc opens with the title track, a slow guitar gallop with Beam fantasizing about "a woman king, sword in hand, swing at some evil."

Women take front and center in Woman King, as they do in all of the Iron & Wine albums. Beam's lyrical style is one which is so intensely personal, they make you feel as though you are listening in on a confession. On "Jezebel," a song about unrequited love, Beam wishes he had a chance to tell a woman that she was "the only shape I pray to." The women being sung about are not flimsy cardboard cut-outs, all of them feel rich and alive.

The last track is the best song on the disc, and possibly the best song Iron & Wine have ever made. "Evening On The Ground (Lilith's Song)" turns Beam's voice, normally used as soft and sweet, into something rushed and chaotic. And as the lyrics turn into darker subject matter, violins and electric guitar crash in and form a very intense atmosphere. The song takes on an urgency rarely used by Beam, and if he keeps on making songs like these, he'll be guaranteed to capture the spotlight he so richly deserves.