Of all of the artists that have consistently secured a place on my "favorite bands" playlists over the past decade, Iron & Wine is the one that has changed the most dramatically.
It's been ten years since I&W released the practically perfect Creek Drank the Cradle. It was a breath of fresh air for a lot of people. It didn't rely on studio gadgetry or production values. In fact it was nothing but Sam Beam's hushed vocals, an acoustic guitar, a four track recorder, and the incredible power of phenomenal songwriting.
I remember reading that some people thought it was some lost recording from a forgotten 1960's singer-songwriter. That's how good it is. It didn't seem like it could be a thing from modern times.
Since then, Iron & Wine has evolved into a musical behemoth, incorporating nearly every instrument on the planet and churning out bright 70's style pop music with plenty of oohs and aahs and even elements of jazz and funk. Truth be told, I miss Creek era Sam Beam. Going back and listening to that album, Endless Numbered Days, and "The Trapeze Swinger", I become aware that these new batches of songs just don't move me the way that the old ones did. Sure, Sam Beam can still write an amazing song, but sometimes those songs are overpowered by their arrangements. I still like a lot of them, but I also catch myself envisioning what they would sound like if they were stripped down into their most fundamental parts.
It helps to think of Iron & Wine as two separate bands. To listen to the newer albums without the context of the earlier albums. The old Iron & Wine was really, really great. But if you packaged up the new Iron & Wine and sold it to me as a completely different band with no preconceived notions of what one of their albums should sound like, I would think they were pretty great as well.
Ghost on Ghost continues on the trajectory established by Kiss Each Other Clean. There's lots of warm, upbeat music here, a la "Tree By the River." Lots of horns, lots of background vocals, groovy bass lines, and even a couple of really strange instrumental breakdowns and time-signature changes. The record starts with a percussive crescendo that stops and leads into the acoustic guitar of "Caught in the Briars." It's that kind of weird shift that actually characterizes the album as a whole. There are many instances where a song will abruptly and unexpectedly shift styles or sounds to become something else entirely.
It should be jarring. It should be disruptive. But somehow, this is a much more coherent album than Kiss Each Other Clean. Maybe it's because there's a thematic symmetry that weaves this set of songs together. They seem to tell a story about a couple who is on some sort of journey. Maybe a physical one or maybe an emotional one. Maybe they are running away or running towards something. Either way, this is a record that definitely tells a story and I like that. It's a very listenable album. It's the kind of album that you can put on and jam to from start to finish and enjoy without thinking too much into it. It sounds like a warm summer evening, sitting on the porch and drinking a beer and watching the lightning bugs flash in the grass.
When you start to think too hard, it becomes less enjoyable. It's apparent that certain songs are much grander than they need to be. Sometimes it feels like Sam Beam is trying to get as far away as possible from his bare bones indie-folk roots. A quiet, lovely little number like "Joy" would have sounded great with nothing but an acoustic guitar. Instead it is kind of a layered clunky thing with tinkling synths and shimmery vocal runs that overrun the potency of the lyrics. It's still a nice song, but I can't help but feel there is an alternate version of it out there that I like much better.
My favorites are the ones that sound like "old Iron & Wine." This has been the case since The Shepherd's Dog when I listened to "Flightless Bird" and "Resurrection Fern" on repeat and neglected most of the rest of the album. My favorites on Ghost on Ghost are "Winter Prayers" and "Baby Center Stage." The latter in particular is a masterpiece for me and probably one of the few times where I feel like everything works. Like Iron & Wine don't have to be two separate bands, as long as they can meet somewhere in the middle and makes beautiful little tunes like this.
Bottom Line: Another solid effort and overall enjoyable record from Iron & Wine, but the complexity of the arrangements on Ghost on Ghost sometimes overpower the songwriting.
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