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Rating: Certainly one of the most interesting albums of 2004 is Our Endless Numbered Days by Sam Beam, known as Iron & Wine.
Sam Beam, despite being young, is an old-school songwriter, reserved and introverted, without too many frills; the arrangements, when present, are mostly discreet and simple... let's say that he lets his heart speak. His songs are simple and intimate ballads and, compared to the first album The Creek Drank the Cradle, which if I'm not mistaken was recorded inside his humble abode, his voice comes through clearer and cleaner, almost a whisper in the ears.
The album presents melodies and harmonies that are lovely and captivating even upon first listen. All of Our Endless Numbered Days is haunted by the ghosts of Elliot Smith (whose posthumous album just came out this year), Leonard Cohen, but especially Nick Drake, particularly in "Naked As We Come" and "Each Coming Night," where his strong influence is acutely felt.
His songs are surprising for their intensity and melancholy, they have an autumnal and bittersweet taste like the poignant "Cinder and Smoke" or "Sunset and Soon Forgotten" (with an intro that seems stolen from old-school acoustic Radiohead). There's no shortage of nods to the Southern United States tradition with "Teeth in the Grass," a driving blues where he also revives the slide guitar.
Towards the end, the album offers us an introspective ballad of rare sweetness like "Sodom, South Georgie," worthy of the greats mentioned above.
Tracklist and Lyrics
02 Swans and the Swimming (03:24)
"Take me again," she said, thinking of him
"To the pond with the swans and the swimming"
Far from his room the familiar perfume
How it felt to her when she was naked
Lessons she learned when her memory slurs
As they marvel with love at the sunset
And walking away as her dark end of day
She will measure and break like a habit
Oh how the rain sounds as loud as a lover's word
And now and again she's afraid when the sun returns
"Take me again," she said, thinking of him
"I don't care for this careful behavior"
A brush through her hair, children kissing upstairs
Keeps her up with her want for her savior
The sun on the sand, on her knees and her hands
As she begs for her fish from the water
But turn them away, she's a whip and a slave
Given time she may find something better
Oh how the rain sounds as loud as a lover's words
And now and again she's afraid when the sun returns
04 Hickory (04:35)
He kissed her once as she leaned on the windowsill
She'll never love him but knows that her father will
Her fallen fruit is all rotten in the middle but her
Breast never dries when he's hungry
The money came and she died in her rocking chair
The window wide and the rain in her braided hair
A letter locked in the pattern of her knuckle
Like a hymn to the house she was making
Blind and whistling just around the corner and there's a
Wind that is whispering something
Strong as hell but not hickory rooted
She kissed him once cause he gave her a cigarette
And turned around but he waits like a turned down bed
And summer left like her walking with another and a
Sound of a church bell ringing
The money came and he died like a butterfly
A buried star and the haze of the city lights
A gun went off and her mother dropped her baby on the
Blue feathered wing - we were lucky
Blind and whistling just around the corner and there's a
Wind that is whispering something
Strong as hell but not hickory rooted
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