Top Ten Tracks on Elbo.ws Reviewed in 50 Words or Less: 7/16/8--7/31/08

1. Calexico - "Two Silver Trees"

Download: Calexico - "Two Silver Trees"

With a brief, string-plucked melody that recalls the feeling of lucid dream, Calexico slowly develops cognizance by adding a subtle rumble of a drumbeat, accordion, and whispered vocals. The hushed atmosphere of the verses borders into Western-themed camp, but the orchestral-pop in the chorus is positively luminescent.

Grade: B+

2. Conor Oberst - "Danny Callahan"

Download: Conor Oberst - "Danny Callahan"

The slight swing in the beat helps give Conor Oberst's first solo effort a breezy, alt-country boogie that is able to charm so easily as to allow no depression to set in. (This despite the tragic subject in the narration). However, this is certainly familiar, both to fans of Bright Eyes and Bob Dylan.

Grade: B-

3. Cold War Kids - "Something is Not Right With Me"

Download: Cold War Kids - "Something Is Not Right With Me"

Finally, some truth in advertising in the music world. This track sounds like someone doing the ole' grab-twist-pull mechanism on Ben Folds. So how is it that my nuts hurt?

Grade: D

4. The Walkman - "In The New Year"

Download: The Walkman - "In The New Year"

The woozy balladry of The Walkmen's new song is the second in a row to hold a debt to Bob Dylan's radical snarl, but with any intellectual edges scrubbed off with a druggy guitar-fuzz. Reverb-heavy production touches provide an impeccable foundation, the song itself is merely competent. It never really begun, baby blue.

Grade: C+

5. Kings of Leon - "Crawl"

Download: Kings of Leon -"Crawl"

After teasing the audience with a hint of the avant-garde (the distorted bassline iis right out of Bjork's "Army of Me"), the Southern-Rock apologists quickly settle into familiar territory with Who-inspired 2-chord blast of power chords not unlike "The Seeker". Doesn't search high, not does it hit low. Turns out I don't need to ask Timothy Leary about shit. The Kings of Leon got him covered.

Grade: B

6. Lackthereof - "Last November"

Download: Lackthereof - "Last November"

To borrow from Eve 6--bet you didn't see that one comin--(the)Lackthreof leaves me...well, not empty inside. Just mildly indifferent, for the most part. Experimental collages of sound shouldn't be this ordinary.

Grade: C

7. Buffertlibre DJ - "Rewinded"

Download: Buffetlibre Djs - "Rewinded"

You mean I have to listen to all of this? And why am I not seeing Slimer yet? This is some bullshit. Not a bad interpolation of songs though. But Girl Talk is more imaginative.

Grade: B

8. Dr. Dog - "The Old Days"

Download: Dr Dog - "The Old Days""

"The Old Days" starts out with the easy-going vocals of reggae on top of a collage of melodious, orchestra psych-pop, before a honky-tonk breakdown and a supernova of sound eclipse the song's laid-back beginnings. This song is nothing if not breezy insouciance.

Grade: B+

9. Parts and Labor - "Nowheres Nigh"

Download: Parts and Labor - "Nowheres Nigh"

Taking the opportunity to evolve musically presented after drummer Christopher Weingarten's departure, the formerly excellent Brooklyn-based sonic scrap-artists opt for a less fractured, more structured approach. A turn to the conventional that was not necessary, with a melody that's poorly cribbed from the Bob Mould playbook.

Grade: C

10. Tricky - "Council Estate (Drums of Death Remix")

Download: Tricky - "Council Estate (Drums Of Death Remix)"

The remix of Tricky's first work in five years, trip-hop titan Tricky skitters with oscillating bleeps-and-bloops for an apocalyptic party jam. Not without merit, but I am more curious to hear the original version. Without it, one can't really appreciated the changes in the remix.

Grade: B-

Iron And Wine - The Shepard's Dog

Download: Iron and Wine - "The Devil Never Sleeps"
Download: Iron and Wine - "Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car"

Iron And Wine
The Shepard's Dog (Sub Pop, 2007)
Grade: A

As those of you who frequent the site might have noticed, I like things lately. Maybe this is a good fall for music releases and concerts; maybe I'm just getting soft in my old age.

Whatever, the reason, I find myself absolutely afloat with joy over 90% of the albums I've heard lately. And I'm pleased to report that Iron & Wine's latest, The Shepherd's Dog is giving me plenty of reason to sustain my new-found ebullience.

I think Sam Beam (you know…Iron & Wine himself) is always in an awkward position. As the sole permanent member in Iron & Wine, he is always faced with the choice of not fixing what ain't broke and just stagnating, or forging ahead and risking failure. But I think in his continuous reach for new sounds with which to supplement his simple, earnest folk-core, he manages to keep each album fresh and interesting.

After his collaboration with Calexico on 2005's In the Reins, the pressure to evolve had settled. After all, how much more of a reach can you get than Calexico's Latin energy compared to Beam's mellow folk? I guess maybe we should ask Devendra. But the real challenge as Beam was writing The Shepherd's Boy was the pressure to follow up Woman King.

Does he do it? Oh fucking yes he does it.

There's, of course, the signature Iron & Wine sound throughout all of The Shepherd's Boy: the twanging guitars overlaid with Beam's dreamy vocals, all anchored by a Meg White-stable drum beat.

But more so in than any of his other albums, Dog looks outside the constraints of time and place for inspiration. "Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's Dog) pulls in a little bit of reggae and calypso, which I'm not normally big on, but the patterns are so well interwoven with Beam's folk guitar that I didn't even notice anything unusual about the beat the first four times I listened to the album. The fact that I've spent the past week spinning some subliminal reggae freaks me out. I think the crown jewel of the whole tangle is "The Devil Never Sleeps," which had me asking if Beam's got a time machine hiding somewhere. I love anything that remotely resembles old-timey music, so I've been pretty much rocking out with my bloomers since the moment I heard that ragtime piano part.

I really admire the way Beam has pushed himself so far and in so many directions since The Creek Drank the Cradle in 2002. If The Shepherd's Dog is any indication of how innovative he'll continue to be, I think we can expect a long and surprising career from Iron & Wine.

The Shepherd's Dog can currently be streamed here

MySpace page
Stream Iron and Wine's concert at Washington D.C. over at NPR


(April Wright)