Beast Epic (studio album) by Iron & Wine

Full disclosure I am a massive I&W fan. At first I found this album to be lacking a bit compared to the last couple of albums (so basically the opposite of pearljammer) :) but after seeing him live twice in a week in Australia, the album has grown on me and the individual songs stand out more on their own.

From zdwyatt 01/05/2018 17:01

I think this strikes a good balance between the sparse sound of his first record and the fuller sound he's been trying to incorporate, to mixed response. Sam Beam always writes good songs, but they shine brightest when they're stripped back a bit.

Favorite tracks: Song In Stone, Call It Dreaming, Claim Your Ghost

From Strangel 10/06/2017 05:20

Not quite as intimate, poetic, or moving as his first 2 albums, but for me it is a return to what he does best. Normally I am big into artists who stretch themselves in new directions to fulfill their talent but Beam is so good at stripped-down, lulling music that he really should just focus on that alone, enriching our souls with his gentle melodic poetry. I find that his country tinged, or jazz tinged, full band stuff tends to err toward bog-standard mediocrity. Even this album still retains a little too much of the country music sound that I cant quite embrace.

From Komorebi-D 09/02/2017 08:45

Sam Beam's best solo work in 6 years. I wasn't a fan of "Ghost on Ghost" but admired his desire to take this project into some new territories. However, I loved last year's "Love Letter For Fire" with Jesca Hoop. "Beast Epic" is a lovely return to form and Beam seems to only concern himself with the twilight years of life. This has got to be one of my favourite album covers in a long while.

Score: 7.5/10

From pearljammer13 08/29/2017 10:28

This feels more like the Iron & Wine I fell in love with. His last two albums have been disappointments for me, as they were muddled with more experimental sounds. I appreciate that he was trying to grow as an artist, but it felt like his was moving too far away from his folk roots. Well he's found them again here. It doesn't feel like an artist that's regressing, rather it feels like an artist who's fully realized where their songwriting shines most. It's certainly not as low-fi and straight forward as The Creek Drank The Cradle, but it's not lost in directionless experimentation either. It's folk with a flourish.