September 9, 2003 - The Sea & The Rhythm

A week after my last release and a year since his debut album "The Creek Drank The Cradle", Iron & Wine released their first EP "The Sea & The Rhythm" on September 9, 2003. It's still just Sam Beam and his guitar and he's still playing the same style of acoustic folk music. Let's check out the latest!

The EP begins with "Beneath The Balcony" and things sound very much the same style as the first album as Beam leads the way with a pretty catchy, slightly twang-y acoustic guitar riff and he sings a soft verse that matches the mood pretty well. After a couple light rounds we get treated to a little acoustic solo, and it's pretty cool as Beam definitely spices things up with some faster guitar. How come he doesn't solo in every song, I thought it was a really welcome addition to things! Up next is "The Sea And The Rhythm" and it's driven by a very slow and pretty sappy-sounding guitar riff as Beam sings a soft, slow verse to match the mood nicely again. The acoustic guitar sounds solid, but everything is pretty bland and sappy and not my favourite. There is another "solo", but you could hardly call it as it is a new, really simple acoustic riff overtop. It was a very smooth song, but almost five and a half minutes was too long with not enough happening. Track 3 is "The Night Descending" and it's got a bit of a faster pace and a pretty catchy and cool acoustic riff leading the way as Beam sings another high, soft verse overtop. It reminds me a bit of a quirky Beatles song, and that's definitely a good comparison! Beam goes fairly low on vocals in the second verse and I think this is easily the best song so far, it's way more exciting than the slower first two songs. The next track is "Jesus The Mexican Boy" and we're back to the slow, soft style as Beam dives right into a nice verse where he alternates low and high lyrics and sounds pretty good overtop another slow acoustic riff. It's a little repetitive, but very smooth and nicely done and we even get a slow but pretty interesting solo midway through! This was my favourite of the slower songs! The final song on the EP is "Someday The Waves" and it's got a very, very slow pace as Beam holds his twang-y guitar notes and sings a matchingly slow verse overtop. Beam plays a twang-y "solo" a couple times in the song and it's alright but a little too much twang for me on this one.

That is the end of "The Sea & The Rhythm" and I thought it was a decent EP by Iron & Wine, but like their debut album it's not really keeping you at the edge of your seat, just slowly and comfortably lazing  things along. I look forward to hearing Sam with some friends next time out!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August 28, 2001 - Puddle Of Mudd and Come Clean

On the same day as my last release a new band briefly joins my library when Puddle of Mudd released their debut album "Come Clean" on August 28, 2001. But who is Puddle of Mudd? They are a four-piece post-grunge band from Kansas City, Missouri consisting of lead singer/guitarist Wes Scantlin, guitarist Paul Phillips, bassist Doug Ardito and drummer Greg Upchurch. I'm not a huge Puddle of Mudd fan, I only have two songs by them in my library, but they are both off this album and were both succesful singles. The first one is called "Blurry" and it's got a smooth and catchy light guitar riff that drives the song and Scantlin sings in a solid grunge-y voice overtop. They ramp nicely from the verse to the chorus and it's a nice heavy chorus with some louder guitars and a solid chorus sung by Scantlin. It's a little repetitive, but things still sound pretty smooth and solid and I think it's a good but not great song. The only other song I have is ...
Read more

July 24, 2001 - Avenged Sevenfold and Sounding The Seventh Trumpet

It's a double release day! On the same day as my last release another new band joins my library when Avenged Sevenfold released their debut album "Sounding The Seventh Trumpet" on July 24, 2001. But who are Avenged Sevenfold? They are a four-piece metalcore band from Huntington Beach, California consisting of Justin Sane (bass, piano), James "The Rev" Sullivan (drums, percussion), Zacky Vengeance (guitars, backing vocals) and M. Shadows (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards). Avenged play an interesting mix of heavy metalcore with screaming vocals, but also a very accesible style of metal with singing at others. Let's see what Avenged Sevenfold are all about! The album kicks off with a short intro called "To End The Rapture" and Vengeance plays a nice heavy rhythm guitar riff before coming right in with some soloing! He is just shredding it right from the get-go with some really wicked stuff and then we hear Shadows for the first time in his uni...
Read more

November 6, 2001 - As I Lay Dying and Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes

Two weeks after my last release a new band joins my library when As I Lay Dying released their debut album "Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes" on November 6, 2001. But who is As I Lay Dying? They are a four-piece metalcore band from San Diego, California consisting of lead singer Tim Lambesis, guitarist Evan White, bassist Noah Chase and drummer Jordan Mancino. As I Lay Dying are part of the budding metalcore scene and they play a very heavy style of metal and Lambesis does all screaming vocals. Let's see what AILD is all about! The album begins with the title track "Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes" and things start off with a pretty fast pace led by some heavy, chugging guitars and bass. They break things down not long after getting started and most of the song is at this slower, very brutal sounding pace. Chase's bass is super heavy, White plays some cool guitar that ranges from super low, all the way to super high, and Lambesis can hardly be understood he sound...
Read more