This listing is for a lot of SIX SEALED Iron and Wine LPs

Every 12" record released by Sub Pop

1. "Creek Drank The Cradle" LP on Sub Pop (SP600) FACTORY SEALED!

Here is what Sub Pop has to say: ", the recorded Word of one Samuel Beam, Miami, Florida; is one of those one-guy-and-his -tapedeck affairs. The Creek Drank the Cradle is filled with hushed, restrained vocals, affecting lyrics from a naturalist’s perspective, exploring relationships and the hope born from them, all of which come across as though whispered to you personally, accompanied by guitar, banjo, slide guitar… Taken as a whole, The Creek Drank the Cradle, debut CD, is an ode to an older South; a part of America that is defined by “traditional values,” pastoral imagery and arcane manners. Or maybe that’s just what we want to hear." 

Track listing1. Lion's Mane
2. Bird Stealing Bread
3. Faded From The Winter
4. Promising Light
5. Rooster Moans, The
6. Upward Over The Mountain
7. Southern Anthem
8. Angry Blade, An
9. Weary Memory
10. Promise What You Will
11. Muddy Hymnal

DetailsContributing artists: 4Producer: Samuel BeamDistributor: Alternative Dis. AllianceRecording type: StudioRecording mode: StereoSPAR Code: n/a
Album notesIron & Wine: Samuel Beam.
One of the most lauded albums of 2002, THE CREEK DRANK THE CRADLE has the ability to stun with its spare beauty. Under the alias of Iron & Wine, Floridian singer/songwriter Sam Beam unveils a rustic 11-song debut here that brings to mind a Southern Gothic Nick Drake. Recorded solely by Beam at home, the disc features minimal instrumentation (primarily acoustic guitar) and a lo-fi sound that's used to striking effect. This bare-bones setting spotlights Beam's high, clear, often-whispered vocals and his evocative lyrics, which conjure up thieving birds, daunting mountains, and melancholy church-goers.
"Lion's Mane" immediately draws listeners close with its intricate, finger-picked guitar and quiet singing, as if Beam were sharing a secret. "Promising Light" seems to move in entrancingly slow motion as it ponders the nature of love, while "The Rooster Moans" saunters into gritty, foreboding bluegrass territory. The record's rural atmosphere is remarkably consistent; Beam's is an achingly sincere voice with plenty of dark, backwoods stories to tell. Although the Iron & Wine sound would be expanded on subsequent releases, the template of Beam's aesthetic is fully in place here, making it an undeniably important album.

Editorial reviews...Although, THE CREEK is intrinsically quiet throughout, it is also sure to hush a noisy room with its heartfelt melodies and jaw-dropping intensity...
CMJ  (09/23/2002)

...Beam's evocation of elemental themes and dramas is too profound and affecting to deny...
Mojo  (01/01/2003)

...The performance here is naked and relaxed....What makes the album so captivating is its unique blend of elements...
The Wire  (09/01/2002)

4 stars out of 5 - ...Simple elegance...the songs occasionally achieve the quietly revelatory feel of John Lennon's early solo work.
Uncut  (11/01/2002)

4 stars out of 5 - ...Simple elegance...the songs occasionally achieve the quietly revelatory feel of John Lennon's early solo work. The Wire (9/02, p.54) - ...The performance here is naked and relaxed....What makes the album so captivating is its unique blend of elements...Mojo (1/03, p.92) - ...Beam's evocation of elemental themes and dramas is too profound and affecting to deny...CMJ (9/23/02), p.7) - ...Although, THE CREEK is intrinsically quiet throughout, it is also sure to hush a noisy room with its heartfelt melodies and jaw-dropping intensity...
Uncut  (11/01/2002)

This copy is sealed: the sleeve is in MINT condition, as is the vinyl!

2. "Woman King" LP on Sub Pop (SP665). FACTORY SEALED!

Here is what Sub Pop has to say: "Aside from the immediacy and intimacy of his recorded work, there is one thing (aside from the evidently ceaselessly noteworthy fact that he sports a beard…) clear about Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam: he is wonderfully prolific. In just short of 2 1/2 years he has released 2 albums (2002’s The Creek Drank the Cradle and 2004’s Our Endless Numbered Days) and (with this and 2003’s The Sea and the Rhythm) two EPs. Recorded in August 2004 with Brian Deck at his Engine Studios, Iron & Wine’s latest release is striking both for its broadened palette (percussion, piano, violin, electric guitar) and its thematic focus on female characters both archetypal and personal. The latter is mostly coincidental, a larger batch of songs yielding recurrent imagery when pared down for this EP. The increasingly complex beauty of Iron & Wine’s albums might best be summed up by the following, from SPIN (in a review of Our Endless Numbered Days):”...Beam is a fearlessly accessible songwriter, framing his melancholy in concrete imagery and solid, inviting melodies. He writes with the self-confidence of a man at peace with his gauzy gifts. He sings like a father talking to a child he respects or like a husband to a wife he adores. Beam has given us his second straight masterwork: self-assured, spellbinding and richly, refreshingly adult.” Here’s the third." 

Track listing1. Woman King
2. Jezebel
3. Gray Stables
4. Freedom Hangs Like Heaven
5. My Lady's House
6. Evening On The Ground (Lilith's Song)

DetailsProducer: Brian DeckDistributor: Alternative Dis. AllianceRecording type: StudioRecording mode: StereoSPAR Code: n/a
Album notesIron & Wine: Sam Beam, Sarah Beam, Jim Becker, EJ Holowicki, Brian Deck.
Recording information: 08/2004.
In his first few years of doing business as Iron & Wine, Floridian singer/songwriter Sam Beam seemed incapable of putting a foot wrong. His hushed, gorgeous ballads had already filled two albums and an EP before 2005's six-song WOMAN KING came along. While Beam's Nick Drake-meets-Elliott Smith whisper and striking poetic imagery remain intact on WOMAN KING, he also indulges in the expanded instrumentation and folk-blues formats hinted at on the preceding OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS. Junkyard percussion, keyboards, and guitars all vie for space with Beam's low-key croon but never overpower it. In keeping with the title, the theme of the EP seems to be various perspectives on female characters, whether on the fanciful title track or the warm, beatific glow of "My Lady's House." With the perfect blend of economy and adventurousness, Beam's lyrical stance makes each track memorable and marks him as one of the finest songsmiths of his era.

Editorial reviews4 stars out of 5 - Embellishing the elegance of the last album with softly propulsive percussion and electric guitar, WOMAN KING heaves in on the canter of velvet hooves....Twenty-five minutes of luminously beautiful music.
Uncut  

Though tender and beautiful, his austere, mournful sketches of lonesome prairie life offer sepia-tinted portraits of heroic Christian suffering. - Grade: A-
Spin  

3.5 stars out of 5 - [T]he best yet [from Iron & Wine]....[Samuel Beam] expands his minimal, mostly acoustic arrangements with unusual percussion, slide guitar, keyboards, violin, distorted electric guitar and multitracked harmonies...
Rolling Stone  

4 stars out of 5 - The usual Iron & Wine ingredients - banjo, slide guitar, translucent voice delicate as a windblown autumn leaf - are augmented by electric guitar, violin, piano and percussion.
Mojo
This copy is sealed: the sleeve is in MINT condition, as is the vinyl!

3. "Our Endless Numbered Days" LP on Sub Pop (SP630). FACTORY SEALED!

Here is what Sub Pop had to say: "Miami’s Sam Beam makes music under the name Iron and Wine and September, 2002 saw the release of his debut album, . That record was/is hushed, literate, intimate, melodic: a quiet treasure which, with its unaffected candor and depth, found fans all over. (Entertainment Weekly: “Based in Miami, of all places, [Beam] invests these songs with hypnotic beauty and sparkling melody, making them as accessible as they are affecting.”) Our Endless Numbered Days is the second full-length album from Iron and Wine and it was recorded both at Sam’s Miami home and in Chicago’s with Brian Deck (, , , etc.) On it, Sam is aided and abetted by regular touring and recording conspirators: his sister Sarah Beam, Patrick McKinney, Jeff McGriff, EJ Holowicki, and Jonathon Bradley. Listening to Our Endless Numbered Days makes plain Sam’s deft touch with words and melody; one that allows him to turn out stories about love, loss, faith, or the lack of it that are at once personal and universal, set to music that is sweetly haunting and timeless.

Track listing1. On Your Wings
2. Naked As We Came
3. Cinder And Smoke
4. Sunset Soon Forgotten
5. Teeth In The Grass
6. Love And Some Verses
7. Radio War
8. Each Coming Night
9. Free Until They Cut Me Down
10. Fever Dream
11. Sodom, South Georgia
12. Passing Afternoon

DetailsProducer: Brian DeckDistributor: Alternative Dis. AllianceRecording type: StudioRecording mode: StereoSPAR Code: n/a
Album notes
Iron & Wine: Sam Beam, Sara Beam, Patrick McKinney, Jeff McGriff, EJ Holowicki, Jonathan Bradley.
Recorded at Engine Deck Studios, Chicago, Illinois in 2003.
While Sam Beam's self-recorded first outing as Iron & Wine, THE CREEK DRANK THE CRADLE, features a hushed bedroom atmosphere, his second full-length album, OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS, invites listeners into a slightly larger living room. Here there's enough space for an outside producer (Brian Deck) and additional musicians (including Sam's sister Sara on harmony vocals). Though Beam's musical palette has broadened to occasionally include drums, bass, and various stringed instruments, the spare, Southern Gothic tone remains intact, thanks to his distinctive, whispered vocals and literate lyrics.
The album opener, "On Your Wings," slowly builds from acoustic- and slide-guitar lines before fading back into its own dreamy oblivion. On "Cinder and Smoke," Beam quietly observes that "the farmhouse is burning down" over a chanted backdrop, while "Free Until They Cut Me Down" initially sounds like Johnny Cash's bluesy take on Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" until Beam's honeyed voice enters. And although the vocals of Cash and Beam are nearly polar opposites, Beam shares the late Man in Black's penchant for themes of nature, death, and spiritual yearning. A gorgeous collection of rustic songs, OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS furthers Beam's songwriting without sacrificing its intimacy.

Editorial reviewsENDLESS flows mellifluously with sparkling, fingerpicked acoustic guitars and thick vocals.
CMJ  (03/15/2004)

Ranked #11 in Magnet's The 20 Best Albums Of 2004 - Sam Beam's voice never rises above a hushed whisper, an his fingerpicked acoustic guitar unfurls like time-lapse photography.
Magnet  

4 stars out of 5 - [Beam is a] quietly compelling songwriter, one whose shyness complements his music rather than undermines it.
Uncut  (05/01/2004)

4 stars out of 5 - [A]n extended treatise on human mortality and the inevitable passing of time - glowering existentialism glimpsed through sweet, Southern fecundity....Contrastingly life-affirming.
Mojo  

[T]he songs unfold like hopeful prayers before the musicians launch them skyward....He writes with the self-confidence of a man at peace with his gauzy gifts. - Grade: A
Spin  (04/01/2004)
4. "The Shepherd's Dog" LP on Sub Pop (SP710). FACTORY SEALED!

last release (not including the collaborative EP which featured songs by Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam and performances by both Iron and Wine and together) was 2005’s , a 6-song EP which distinguished itself from its predecessors with a deepening integration of spiraling, dense opuses with intimate confessionals. On The Shepherd’s Dog this integration is complete. Sam Beam has confessed to finding spiritual inspiration in pièce de résistance, Swordfishtrombones, an album with which Waits upended his previous strategies and forged a new musical language for himself. Recorded by Sam with the assistance of longtime producer Brian Deck and engineer Colin Studebaker, The Shepherd’s Dog succeeds in accomplishing a similar cathartic recasting of the artist’s intentions. The arrangements here are kaleidoscopic and rich. “White Tooth Man” rocks with a desperate, menacing intensity while “Boy with a Coin,” , is darkly playful with a handclap hook tumbling under its cascading melody. The whole album breathes. Its seductive rhythms percolate and undulate, from the Psych-Bhangra-redux of “Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car” to the album’s last dance—a waltz—”Flightless Bird, American Mouth.” Compositionally, it is most ambitious and accomplished recording to date. It’s also the most satisfying.

*If you buy the LP of this album, be aware that this album contains a coupon which will enable you to download the songs for free to use on your less analog devices.10. Pressed in a Book

This copy is sealed: the sleeve is in MINT condition, as is the vinyl!

5. "Around The Well" 3xLP on Sub Pop (SP808)

This compilation features rare b-sides, rarities, and previously unreleased songs!

Tracklist:

Dearest Forsaken Morning Loud as Hope Peng! 33 Sacred Vision Friends They Are Jewels Hickory Waitin’ for a Superman Swans and the Swimming Call Your Boys Such Great Heights Communion Cups and Someone’s Coat Belated Promise Ring God Made the Automobile Homeward These Shoes Love Vigilantes Sinning Hands No Moon Serpent Charmer Carried Home Kingdom of the Animals Arms of a Thief Collecting songs ranging from out-of-print to never-before-released, Around the Well spans Iron and Wine’s earliest sessions which yielded the band’s debut (2002’s ) through material recorded for 2007’s . The double-disc Around the Well collection is broken up into two sections. The first half is an assortment of hushed home recordings, unedited and raw, and the second highlights moments captured in the confines of proper studios with the help of other musicians, friends and engineers. The album’s title comes from a line in the song “The Trapeze Swinger,” a fan favorite which was written for and included in the movie In Good Company. Three more songs written and recorded for the film finally make their appearance here as well: “Belated Promise Ring,” “God Made the Automobile” and “Homeward, These Shoes.” Around the Well also brings together hard-to-find covers such as The Flaming Lips’ “Waitin’ for a Superman” and New Order’s “Love Vigilantes,” along with one of Iron and Wine’s earliest originals, “Sacred Vision.” In support of Around the Well, . In addition, Iron and Wine have begun work on the follow-up to The Shepherd’s Dog and plan to release a new album in spring, 2010.

6. "The Sea & The Rhythm" EP on Sub Pop (SP619)

First time on vinyl!

BENEATH THE BALCONY THE SEA AND THE RHYTHM THE NIGHT DESCENDING JESUS THE MEXICAN BOY SOMEDAY THE WAVES Sub Pop said, "5 songs recorded in Sam Beam’s bedroom from the same sessions that gave us 2002’s The Creek Drank the Cradle. The Sea and the Rhythm includes “Jesus the Mexican Boy,” which has been a big audience favorite at recent Iron and Wine shows. Sam and his co-conspirators will be recording the new Iron and Wine full-length this summer at Chicago’s Engine Studios with Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Holopaw, Red Red Meat), scheduled for release in early 2004."

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