Weed Garden

Album review

This EP takes over where 2017's album Beast Epic left off: and that's because its six tracks come from the same recording session. Sam Beam had said that he'd be back a year later with a nice surprise. And, as promised, here is an earthy record that cuts a shining path through the undergrowth. With this romantic EP, Iron & Wine is staying faithful to folk ballads and floaty choruses. It's a plunge into the ensemble's more or less misty memories. Iron & Wine's name has never fit so well.

Taking on some painful subjects in a sublime state of semi-drunkenness, Waves of Galveston returns to the tragic event of 1900 when the Texan town was devastated by a hurricane. Over a simple folk melody, Sam Beam imagines, a century later, the catastrophe and the calm after the storm. There's a moving description of the scene, made marvellous by its easy singing ("There's a graveyard by the pizza parlor" / "Papa left you for Heaven after your Mama lost her song"). The American songwriter has a gift for sharpening emotion without falling into florid overwriting. Psychedelic folk ballads against a moderate groove (What Hurts Worse) and some very cool folk (Last of Your Rock 'n' Roll Heroes) rub shoulders with more serious cello strains and tinkling pianos (Milkweed). With Weed Garden, Iron & Wine will seduce fans thanks to a rich and delicate poetry shot through with optimism. © Clara Bismuth/Qobuz