New Iron & Wine album

I was getting worried about not having things to write about, and then today I came across about 4 different artists/songs I wanted to cover. I should have plenty of material coming up, including a song from a 62 year old soul singer who just released his debut album, a couple songs from a folk singer who has gained his following by giving away music for free, and a couple old favorite of mine that I have yet to cover. But for today, it's Iron & Wine that gets the call from the bullpen of ideas (hmm... probably a forced baseball reference).

Iron & Wine, the stage name of Sam Beam, released his newest album today. If you are familiar with Sam's previous work, this album may catch you off guard a bit. His previous releases have been hushed, stripped down, folky affairs, while his new record sees him experimenting with horn sections, electronic elements, and more plugged in instruments than usual. Upon my first couple listens of Kiss Each Other Clean, I actually really enjoy the change. It was strange at first, but it quickly grew on me. The first track from the album is called "Walking Far From Home" and stood out as an early favorite track for me. Here is a video of the song:



The whole album can be streamed right now at Spinner, here.

The first single from the album, Tree By The River, can currently be downloaded for free from Amazon here, and the whole album is only $6.99 there.

Iron & Wine also did a session with Daytrotter recently, and you can download 4 songs from that session for free here. Enjoy the free music and pick up the new album if you like what you hear!

New Decemberists Album

The new Decemberists album, The King Is Dead, came out today. I've been a fan of the Portland, Oregon band for several years now, and their albums have yet to disappoint me. I picked up the album after teaching today, and I've listened to The King Is Dead twice now, and so far I've really enjoyed it. While their last album, The Hazards of Love, was a rock opera with a story throughout, complete with different people voicing different characters, the new album is just a fun, regular album, indie-folk affair, much more to my liking. So far my favorite song is the first track, Don't Carry It All. I'm a sucker for a catchy harmonica in a song, and the accordion is a fun touch. You can hear the song below:




Here you can stream the first single from the album:

If you want to hear more, last I checked, you could still stream the full album here as part of NPR's wonderful First Listen series.

Also, the album is on sale at Best Buy for only $6.99 (where I picked it up), and it is $3.99 for the mp3 download from Amazon through the end of today (so hurry!).