Iron & Wine: The Shepherd's Dog [SUB POP]

Why you'll love it

This Sub Pop LP puts Sam Beam's richest, most rhythmic record on vinyl with a download card. It debuted at No. 24 on the Billboard 200, scored 84 on Metacritic and landed at No. 10 on Paste's albums of 2007.

This edition

• Download card included
• Numbered

About the album

Sam Beam made his name whispering into a four-track in his bedroom, which is a lovely way to start a career and a hard trick to keep up. On The Shepherd's Dog he opened the doors: producer Brian Deck brought in a bigger cast, the rhythms got looser and stranger, and the songs picked up percussion, keys and a gentle, rolling groove.

"Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car" sets the tone, and Rolling Stone counted it among the 100 best songs of 2007. "Boy with a Coin" was the first single, a clap-along shuffle with Beam's voice still soft at its centre, while "White Tooth Man" and "Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's Dog)" lean into a dusty, global kind of folk. Beam painted the artwork himself.

A year later Kristen Stewart picked "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" for the prom scene in Twilight, and a whole new audience turned up at the record shop asking for the vampire song. We've learned to point them to the right aisle without comment.

Also at Kops: more Iron & Wine on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Sub Pop (cat# SP 710), a reissue of the 2007 album.