It used to be you could listen to an Iron & Wine album and imagine sitting alone with Sam Beam as he whispered his lyrics directly to you. The first few seconds of his new LP, The Shepherd's Dog, would lead you to believe that's still the case. But soon enough, a full backing band comes in, expanding and deepening Beam's guitar plucking with exotic drums and a playful piano.
The songs are still, at heart, the acoustic numbers we've come to expect. However, he's confidently added layers of instrumentation - a steel pedal here, some piano there, an electric guitar solo out of nowhere - to flesh out the songs. "White Tooth Man" pairs a sitar with an urgent, haunting melody while "Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's Dog)" infuses a hint of reggae into Beam's normal repertoire. "Carousel" is slow and ambient, but the eerie vocals hold the track together.
The high point is the album's closer, "Flightless Bird, American Mouth," a beautifully simple, heartfelt song. It's the stuff of end-of-summer campfires, swaying and singing your heart out before everyone has to go home. The intimacy found on Beam's prior albums remains, but now he's whispering to you just a little louder, joined by a few of his friends.
