Iron & Wine - Around the Well

Back in January I wrote about The Woman King by Iron & Wine. It was the first Iron & Wine album I ever heard and remains to be my favourite. The second Iron & Wine album I heard was the b-sides and rarities compilation Around the Well, which remains to be my second favourite Iron & Wine album (the fact that neither of these are "proper" albums is probably of note).

About six months after I bought The Woman King I'd just moved to London and spent a Saturday afternoon browsing the record shops of Soho for bargain cds. In one of the second hand stores I found a copy of Around the Well on cd for £7 and, having enjoyed The Woman King so much, figured it was worth a shot. I also noticed that it contained the cover of Such Great Heights (a song I've already sung the praises of twice - in the post about The Woman king above, and in this post about Give Up by The Postal Service) so I knew it would contain at least one excellent song.

In amongst those 23 songs there were some other gems that stood out at various points over the years - The Postal Service-esque Sacred Vision, Hickory, The Flaming Lips' Waitin' for a Superman, Belated Promise Ring and Arms of a Theif. However, the highlight of the collection by far is the final, nearly 10-minute long song, The Trapeze Swinger. I've not listened to every Iron & Wine album, but The Trapeze Swinger must surely be one of his absolute finest. As the song rolls on the story unfolds and it never gets boring. The drums and gentle backing-vocals fill the track in a beautiful way and act as a bed for the guitar, floating lyrics and organ. If you have 10 minutes to check out a new song today, I can't recommend enough that it should be The Trapeze Swinger.

A couple of weeks ago I was record shopping in Manchester and found this second-hand, triple-LP version of Around the Well in very good condition for £12. The shop it was in wasn't the cheapest so I was quite surprised to find an album I wanted quite so reasonably. I've had the cd for nearly five years but £12 was a price I was willing to pay for The Trapeze Swinger alone. When I got home I was pleasantly surprised again to find that the F-side of the vinyl was etched (see below). A lot of record labels would have considered cutting a song to make it fit on two discs, so you've got to love Sub Pop for doing the opposite and dedicating a whole 12" to that incredible last song. 

Format: Triple 12", insert, etched F-side

Tracks: 23

Cost: £12 second hand

Bought: Vinyl Exchange, Manchester

When: 18/05/14

Colour: Black

Etching: Etched F-side

mp3s: Download code

Iron & Wine - Woman King

The first time I ever heard Iron & Wine was on his incredible cover of Such Great Heights by The Postal Service. I can tell you exactly where I was when that graced my ears - sat in the ANU campus theatre waiting for the Burton and Garran Hall annual theatre production to start. I have no memory of what the play was about in the slightest, but I do distinctly remember hearing Iron & Wine beforehand. I knew the original and a friend told me it was Iron & Wine singing. It was playing loud enough that it drowned out most of the pre-show chatter and in my memories everyone else was sat there in as much awe as I was. It was pretty lovely.

Two and half years later, I finally bought an Iron & Wine cd. The name had come up a bunch of times in the time between and I was frequently being recommended them. My friend Aled from work was adamant I should watch them at the Explosion in the Sky-curated All Tomorrow's Parties, but I'm pretty sure they clashed with someone else I wanted to see. When Virgin Megastore went into liquidation, the closing down sale was quite an event with hundreds of cds going for dirt-cheap. You had to rummage through boxes and boxes of shit to find anything good, but there were some real treats hidden in there. Amongst the many cds I bought over a period of a few days was Woman King by Iron & Wine. Only six songs but only £3, so worth a shot I figured.

To this day, Woman King remains my favourite Iron & Wine release. The other albums haven't done so much for me, but these six songs are perfect. The vocals float beautifully over the gentle guitar and the other instruments are superbly sparse. Highlights are Jezebel, My Lady's House and Evening on the Ground (the line "we were born to fuck each other / one way or another" always makes me smile). I found this copy in Gainesville the day after Fest last year and decided for $10 I definitely needed it on vinyl. There's nothing particularly noteworthy about the vinyl release, other than the six incredible songs cut into it.

Format: 12", a4 insert
Tracks: 6
Cost: £6.30 new
Bought: Hear Again Music, Gainesville
When: 04/11/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code