I remember reviewing Bonnie Prince Billy’s last album, The Letting Go, and being hugely relieved that someone I’d always found far too hushed to quite grab me before seemed to have loosened up, let go a bit, and written some really arresting songs. And like Will Oldham before him, Sam Beam has here accomplished a similar feat without having to abandon the loveliness for which he is most loved. The true fans and purists might not be delighted, but I am suddenly able to enjoy someone I had struggled to get into previously.
Now, I don’t know his back catalogue very well, so it’s possible I just picked the wrong record to start with, but there’s a very gentle 70s style Western rock ‘n’ roll permeating this latest album that is really quite gorgeous. The harmonies and eager piano lift it well above any of the other stuff of Beam’s that I am at all familiar with and I find myself really enjoying it. It’s possible that there will be people who find this hippy alt-folk style a little too close to the kind of dreamy 70s West Coast easy going stuff that Midlake occasionally get criticised for emulating, and I can sort of see that.
Ultimately though, the gently distorted vocals and gentle rise and fall of the emotional base of the song have made an album that for me is just awash with loveliness. I should perhaps consider making a more concerted effort to get into Beam’s early stuff if this is what he’s capable of. And, as an aside, I absolutely love the artwork for this record, and the single which accompanies it as well.
Iron & Wine – Carousel
Iron & Wine – Resurrection Fern
website | hype | amazon
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a quite splendid podcast. Not the chat – there’s actually blessed little of that for a change – but the actual music. There may not be the one or two big names I tend to try and slip in to make sure that casual listener more likely to have a listen and thus bring an audience to the smaller bands, but it just didn’t quite happen. I like to do it for myself too, really, but for some reason they just didn’t quite get a look in this week, although I did throw in a rather obscure Pogues track, but it just seemed fine without them.
I really like this one though, and there are some excellent new things to hear, so get stuck in. It’s all quite an acoustic folk-pop sort of atmosphere, so I hope that sort of thing is your bag, but I’ve thrown in a couple of slightly different things, like David Cronenberg’s Wife, Mother & the Addicts and A Hawk & a Hacksaw to make sure it’s not too one-paced. So get stuck in, my little Toadlings, music a-plenty and jolly fine stuff too!
Toadcast #8 – New Things & Englishness[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo8.mp3]
1. Donny Hue & the Colours – Humming With the Flowerbirds (01.01)
2. Monkey Swallows the Universe – Jimmy Down the Well (06.19)
3. Emmy the Great – Canopies & Grapes (10.26)
4. Mother & the Addicts – Are Others (14.30)
5. Champion Kickboxer – Perforations (20.42)
6. Jake Flowers & the Carol-Anne Showband – Annabel (26.06)
7. Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit – Tickle Me Pink (28.07)
8. Mirah & Spectratone International – Supper (34.09)
9. Patti Page – Old Cape Cod (38.01)
10. A Hawk & a Hacksaw – The Way the Wind Blows (41.52)
11. David Cronenberg’s Wife – My Ukrainian Girlfriend (47.20)
12. The Pogues – First Day of Forever (54.08)
13. Iron & Wine – Kingdom of the Animals (57.22)
14. The Ralfe Band – Albatross Waltz (63.23)
15. A Hawk & a Hacksaw – Portlandtown (68.19)
