Album Review: Iron & Wine - Ghost On Ghost

Way before Instagram was a pixel in its creator's eye, pictures actually used to look like that – lens flare, toasted sunbeams and grainy blue skies. The soundtrack to these photos of redwoods and longboards was artists like The Mamas & The Papas, The Carpenters and Donovan. Iron & Wine's fifth studio album Ghost On Ghost puts the best of this '60s/'70s sentiment on wax, but this record will not fade like the fad of filter photographing your yum cha. The overwhelming beauty of Sam Beam's lyrics transcends modern trends and misty-eyed nostalgia to give us one of the records of the year.

Lines like “There was seed for the field/Grease for the wheel” from outstanding lead single Grace For Saints And Ramblers lend credence to the Cat Stevens comparisons, but comparisons like these alone will never do Iron & Wine justice. Where Stevens seemingly wrote his songs for a diaspora, Beam sings with a real sense of place. That place, or rather the sense itself, is in the best tradition of Americana, putting him alongside genre defining mavericks like Donovan and Steely Dan. Sonically, Beam's voice slides between sugar glass fragility and smooth treacle, carried by the honky-tonk harmonies and reverb of his band.

With a renewed sense of direction from Iron & Wine, Ghost On Ghost is an essential waypoint on the American journey and a marker in the career of Beam himself. As much a hard reset as a progression, where Iron & Wine now leads others will surely follow.