“Beast Epic” – out August 25th – will be Iron & Wine’s eighth full length record, which includes two collaborations: 2015’s “Sing Into My Mouth” with Ben Bridwell (Band Of Horses), and “Love Letter For Fire” with Jessica Hoop.
The first single released from “Beast Epic, “Call It Dreaming” is a sweet, sincere reminder that we ultimately control our own stories. Unfortunate it evokes nil in terms ‘beast’ imagery. Of course, that’s besides Sam Beams increasingly unyielding facial hair.
“Anywhere means we’re runnin’/We can sleep and see ’em comin’/We can weep and call it singin,'” sings Beam softly in the opening verse.
“Call It Dreaming,” from “Beast Epic”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXC80ZXQhvQ
“Beast Epic” will be released on LP, Deluxe LP, CD, and Cassette. The album will consist of eleven tracks, and the Deluxe LP will feature two bonus songs — “Hearts Walk Anywhere”, “Kicking The Old Rain” — as well as three demo versions of tracks from the album.
“The right of passage is an image I’ve returned to often because I feel we’re all constantly in some state of transition,” Beam says of the album via Iron & Wine’s website. “Beast Epic is saturated with this idea but in a different way simply because each time I return to the theme, I’ve collected new experiences to draw from.”
“Call It Dreaming” is a departure musically from 2013’s jazz infused multi-genre, “Ghost On Ghost”; however, Beam’s writing structure remains. Overall, the song combines his subtle earlier work and his recently expanded sound.
Beast epic is a literary genre — “A poem with epic conventions in which animals speak and act like human beings.”
Iron & Wine will begin touring in support of the album next month with his annual Midwives Benefit show. His American tour will wrap up in November, and he’ll begin a European tour in 2018.
