STEVE JOHNSON relishes a celebration of the commonality of folk music and its links with the struggles of working people the world over
Album reviews with Ian Sinclair: March 18, 2019
The latest from Iron & Wine, TEEN and Chick Corea
This thriller is a politically charged and morally complex dive into climate activism and police repression, judges JENNY FARRELL
Cat show killer, avenging the pawns, women hunt the Ripper, and running dry in the outback
The Bard reflects on sharing a bed, and why he wont go to Chelsea
MARY CONWAY applauds a new play that foresees the unscrupulous tactics of a future far-right minority government
RON JACOBS is moved to tears by an eloquent journal of heartfelt intensity and human portraiture
ROBERT OVETZ recommends a case study, from the University of Leicester, in their struggle against precarization, AI, privatisation, outsourcing, and work intensification in higher education
Iron & Wine
Our Endless Numbered Days
(Sub Pop)
★★★★
IN THE mid-2000s it was difficult to escape the sound and influence of US singer-songwriter Sam Beam — AKA Iron & Wine, in indie music circles — especially his career-high second album Our Endless Numbered Days.
Re-released with eight demos to celebrate its 15th anniversary the record has, if anything, improved with age. Beam’s hushed vocals and acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin and slide guitar playing fashions a deeply intimate and thoughtful atmosphere, his Southern folk akin to your favourite jumper — warm, familiar and calming.
Like the album title, Naked As We Come — a song of exquisite beauty — is a meditation on the passing of time and mortality. Elsewhere there are summer memories on the finger-picked Sunset Soon Forgotten and the keys-assisted Passing Afternoon is a sentimental, poetic closer.
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