June 12, 2010: Iron And Wine

Artist: Iron And Wine
Album: Our Endless Numbered Days
Year: 2004

Without a doubt in my personal top five albums of all time with Have One On Me, Illinois, Sunsets And Carcrashes, Our Endless Numbered Days is the ultimate indie-folk album and an absolutely necessity to any music collection. Sam Beam's broad and gentle finger picking under his perfectly harmonious voice (and beautifully combined by his haunting and hushed sister who sings on a handful of tracks) is a soothing marvel and leads the way in what some would call "chill" music. The album is a modern day Mona Lisa, a testament to beauty in music. Beam experiments all around the album as well, such as the folksy "Teeth In The Grass" and the dark "Free Until They Cut Me Down"; however, while these tracks are incredibly solid and add great changes of pace, the highlights of the album are Sam writing wonderfully sincere and gorgeous ballads: the thematic "Naked As We Came", the sincere "Love And Some Verses" (which openers with one of my favorite lines in a song ever: "Love is a dress that you made long / To hide your knees"), the minimal "Radio War", the comforting "Each Coming Night", the drifting and poignant "Fever Dream". However, Beam saves the best for last with a song I could only describe as perfect: "Passing Afternoon". This is, without a doubt, my favorite song of all time. No question. If I could only hear one song for the rest of my life, this would be it. Highly, highly recommended.

Hear it for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGPzyGIaw0E