Iron And Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days

Herald rating: * * * *

He might be from the Sunshine State of Florida and record for the label which delivered us grunge, but Sam Beam - the beardy guy behind Iron and Wine - sure doesn't sound like he's taken any notice of either detail.

This, his second album, was released in the northern hemisphere last year and has taken a while to filter down these parts. But it's a keeper.

Beam's a singer-songwriter of hushed voice over finger-picked and slide guitar and occasional banjo delivering quietly swaying songs which, combined, create a sweet autumnal haze of an album.

It reminds you at times of fellow southerner Sparklehorse - as well as Elliot Smith and especially English folk legend Nick Drake - with Beam's honeyed sigh of a voice and deeply intimate arrangements.

But as gentle and dreamy as it sounds, there's something unsettling in the songs with Beam drawing vivid pictures from his lyrics, especially in songs like Sodom, South Georgia, Teeth in the Grass and Fever Dream.

Playing wise, it barely raises a sweat. Even when it breaks out the gothic blues and locates the album's only outbreak of drumming on Free Until they Cut Me Down. But its uneasy serenity makes Our Endless Numbered Days all the more gripping.Label: Subpop