Where previous Iron And Wine records have been a bit too fragile - sometimes you had to turn up the volume just to hear Sam Beam's whispery vocal - Boy With A Coin sees a new found confidence and muscularity come to the fore. We're not talking Muse here of course, just a lovely, lazy melody that proves instantly hypnotic.

The ghostly figure of Elliott Smith towers over the song - indeed, at first listen, you'd think it was some undiscovered gem that Smith left lying in his vault. There's handclaps, intricately worked acoustic guitars and, best of all, Beam actually singing rather than whispering. After years of residing in cultdom, this could well be Iron And Wine's commercial breakthrough.

  share with:  Facebook | Digg | other sites