Iron & Wine - The Creek drank the Cradle

The amount of new music i'm subjecting myself to now means that my brain needs to be some sort of sponge in order to absorb as much as possible. Unfortunately all sponges have a capacity and after taking so much, some starts to leak away. Couple that with the fact that my brain feels more like a cinder block than a sponge and you will start to realise that a lot of the stuff i'm listening to isn't sinking in. It's just merely passing through, across the surface and then sliding off the other side. There are exceptions of course. I've already waxed lyrically about some of the great music i've come across. The kind of music that just feels good to listen to, and takes over from anything else in your day. I have my guard up for most new albums, not prepared to let anything through unless it does something special. Then i usually listen to it again, and again to the point of obsession until i know it back to front and have to stop myself from listening to it further for fear of ruining it. When i first heard Iron & Wine's "The Shepherd's Dog" in 2007 it instantly became one of those albums. It's rolling, warm, muddy sounds were so different to everything else i was listening to ( and becoming disheartened by ) at the time. So i've gone back to where it started for Iron & Wine ( aka Sam Beam ) to see if i can find some more inspiration to continue this process. The Creek drank the Cradle is a much simpler, stripped back album than Shepherd's dog. There's no band, no backing vocals, and only a guitar, occasional banjo and Beam's vocal. It's a folky, alt-country sound reminiscent of Nick Drake, that i know and love. The finger strummed guitar and double tracked slightly distorted vocals give it that dulled, soft edged sound ( that some may call snooze inducing ) that makes you close your eyes and think of being somewhere warm and calm, somewhere in the outdoors with the sun on your face, kids playing in the distance, not a care in the world. At least that's what it does for me. and that's all that matters