Ghost on Ghost
With each successive album Sam Beam explores new creative styles and becomes less recognizable to those who remember the quiet, lo-fi recordings that stood as his introduction to the music world. Beam is too restless a soul to confine himself to single sound and *Ghost On Ghost*, his fifth album, grabs a ticket for the AM Radio of the 1970s when a singer-songwriter like Paul Simon tried on new grooves and R&B, soft rock and lite-jazz all could be heard in a single listening. \"Grace For Saints and Ramblers\" cranks up the electric piano and the female backing choruses for a classic track that slips between genres. \"Grass Widows\" takes things further with another jazzy electric piano, a smart horn section and a Beam vocal that shadows John Lennon with its lonely echo. \"Singers and the Endless Song\" has traces of the reflective cadences of *Our Endless Numbered Days* but with a slew of friends busting things out. Tony Garnier\'s bass lines, Brian Blade\'s clean but animated drum fills, and Josette Newsome and Carla Cook\'s backing vocals ensure Beam is lonely no more.
Sam Beam's sixth Iron & Wine album Ghost on Ghost is packed with ideas and features musical flourishes that nod to 1970s lite rock, jazz, and the blues.
Sam Beam has been steadily walking away from the spare, acoustic sound that won him acclaim as Iron And Wine a decade ago, rarely looking over his shoulder at the naked beauty of his debut, The Creek Drank The Cradle. With each album he adds more colors and layers, which has proved frustrating for fans of his early,…
Imaginative, diverse and richly layered, Sam Beam’s sound is expanded into blazing widescreen, like a greatest hits collection on one new album.
The days when Sam Beam ushered in a whole new era of DIY indie lo-fi music with records like the hollow and chilling The…
After expanding his intimate indie folk sound about as far as it could go on the last Iron & Wine album, Kiss Each Other Clean, Sam Beam (and trusty producer Brian Deck) take a step back on Ghost on Ghost and deliver something less suited for large arenas and more late-night jazz club-sized.
If you've ever searched for Iron and Wine at a record store, chances are that you've found songwriter Sam Beam's work in the folk section.
Iron & Wine’s last two records—2007’s The Shepherd’s Dog and 2011’s Kiss Each Other Clean—found leader Sam Beam diving into uncharted musical waters after the calm, acoustic songwriting of Iron & Wine’s first two albums.
ClashMusic: Read a review of the new album from Iron And Wine on the 4AD label, 'Ghost On Ghost'.
Iron and Wine's Sam Beam mixes MOR and menace to winning effect, writes <strong>Ally Carnwath</strong>
Eerie Americana has given way to drive-time folk-rock on the fifth album by one of the great modern US band, says <strong>Dave Simpson</strong>
The latest chapter in the singer-songwriter’s evolution is a work of immense beauty and scale...