My Rating: 97% (A+)
Pitchfork Rating: 75%
Rolling Stone Rating: 70%
Metacritic Rating: 80%
Average Rating: 81% (B+)
Tracklist (Standout songs underlined):
- Claim Your Ghost
- Hearts Walk Everywhere
- Kicking the Old Rain
- Thomas County Law
- About a Bruise (Demo)
- Bitter Truth
- Claim Your Ghost (Demo)
- Song in Stone
- Summer Clouds
- Summer Clouds
- Call It Dreaming
- About a Bruise
- Last Night
- Right for Sky
- The Truest Stars We Know
- Our Light Miles
Favourite Song on Album:
Listen to This Album When You’re:
Tired but happy.
Thoughts on Album Cover:
One of my favourites of theirs so far.
Want to Own on Vinyl?:
Yes!
Final Thoughts:
The thing that is most impressive about Iron & Wine is how long he’s been making music and how consistently good his releases are. Beast Epic is nothing new, but I don’t want anything new from this artist, he’s perfected his sound and he’s glad to stay in his lane. Few artists get so much leeway when it comes to catching criticism as not growing (Jack Johnson is typically hated because his songs all sound the same) as Iron & Wine does. The main difference here is that all of Iron & Wine’s albums sound roughly the same, but their individual songs all have a life of their own, and it never seems to get old. Beast Epic is welcome material for Iron & Wine fans, but more cannon fodder for those who want to say that he’s a stagnant artist.