In 2002 Iron and Wine's Sam Beam reminded music fans that a man with a guitar, a four-track, and a soft voice can shake up a spirit. The Creek Drank the Cradle was, and still is, a quiet favorite among indie rock fans because of its hushed, intimate vocals layered over gentle guitar. Beam's lyrics were literate, drenched in both religious and social myth of the American South. From all perspectives, the album's grace came from understated genius.
Our Endless Numbered Days builds on the understatement with the addition of a backing band and intrusive production. Many fans were alarmed by talk of a backing band for Iron and Wine, but those fears aren't realized here. The new instrumentation changes the effective image of a cerebrating bard with his six string, but Beam's soft singing is matched by the easygoing pace of the percussion and his sister's lulling backing vocals. It's a very quiet backing band, and Beam's soft tenor still remains the delicate centerpiece.
The piano triplets leading out of "Passing Afternoon" represent the loudest part of the record. No, it is not the instrumentation but Brian Deck's polished production that almost ruins Our Endless Numbered Days. The Creek Drank the Cradle was authenticated by the naked rawness of its four-track recording; it gave us Beam as he was, with no built-in hits or targeted audience. Here, though, Beam's voice is streamlined and a little too perfect for fans of his prior music who felt, with good reason, like Beam was serenading them from their living rooms. "Naked As We Came" sounds perfect for radio, conveniently ending at 2 minutes, 32 seconds.
Fortunately, Beam is still adding definitions of love, trying to make up his mind about whether God is really good, and wallowing in natural imagery in his lyrics. The overall tone changes from self-assured to hopeful, then pensive. Death is supplanted by birth in "Sodom, South Georgia," indicating how our days are endless yet numbered, and in "Naked As We Came" a lover says, "if I leave before you, darling/ don't you waste me in the ground." The idea that ashes spread around the yard beget new life helps create a bittersweet tone to this record that is common to Beam's other work.
"Less is more" is an annoying cliché, but I find myself wishing that Iron and Wine and Brian Deck had put a little more faith in it. Beam would look a little funny dressed in leather pants, and he would seem out of context if his concerts featured pyrotechnics and lip-synching for a studio-perfect performance, so why dress his record like its appeal is in slick, non-offensive production? Beam's distinctive songs are most endearing when their rustic quality is matched by their production.
1. On Your Wings
2. Naked As We Came
3. Cinder and Smoke
4. Sunset Soon Forgotten
5. Teeth in the Grass
6. Love and Some Verses
7. Radio War
8. Each Coming Night
9. Free Until They Cut Me Down
10. Fever Dream
11. Sodom, South Georgia
12. Passing Afternoon
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