Sam Beam – My (life in) music lists

100 best covers: #40 Iron And Wine “Such great heights”

Back in May, I travelled down to Toronto to see a concert for which I had purchased tickets almost six months beforehand. The show in question was certainly worth all the pre-planning and the additional travel: one of the few stops on the tour by Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service celebrating the 20th (er… 21st) anniversary of these bands’ landmark 2003 albums, “Transatlanticism” and “Give up”. It was double duty for Ben Gibbard, frontman of both acts, as he performed two sets on the evening, both feted albums from beginning to end, before coming back to perform a two-song encore, the first song* of which was “Such great heights” (again), which Gibbard introduced as a cover of an Iron And Wine song.

Gibbard was joking, of course, but there was a kernel of truth in there somewhere as well.

When “Such great heights” was launched as the first single from “Give up”, it was released as a four song EP, including covers of two of the album’s songs by two of The Postal Service’s Sub Pop label mates**. The Iron And Wine cover was very nearly as popular as the original, both versions coming to the public’s consciousness at around the same time, and the fact that the pair were very different in sound and style but equally catchy probably helped record sales for both artists. The cover was featured on the “Garden State” soundtrack, a massive vehicle for certain indie artists at that time, and the two versions appeared in multiple TV advertising campaigns.

The Postal Service’s original is a digital beast. The upbeat chiming synths and frenetic rhythm reflect the almost blinding optimism and exuberant subject matter of love and hope, a rarity in Gibbard’s early songwriting. Played back to back, the Iron And Wine cover is still nearly unrecognizable as the same composition. It has a tempo slowed down a hundred million times and is austere in its acoustic guitar finger picking and Sam Beam’s soft and wistful delivery. The production, too, is like a 180, sounding ancient, rather than futuristic, analog versus digital. You can almost hear imagined vinyl crackling overlaying the audible breaths between lines and the tactile feel of the calloused fingertips on the strings.

Both versions are swoon worthy, each a work of beauty in their own right. I couldn’t possibly choose one over the other, unless the mood dictated a certain aesthetic on a given day. Of course, it would be the opposite on the next.

I call this one a draw.

Cover:

Original:

*The second one being an actual cover of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the silence”!

**The other was The Shins’ cover of “We will become silhouettes”.

For the rest of the 100 best covers list, click here.

Best tunes of 2002: #26 Iron And Wine “Lion’s mane”

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Iron And Wine is the stage name for Sam Beam, an American singer/writer who sported a big bushy beard before it became a thing again. I somehow came across him shortly after he released his debut album, “The creek drank the cradle”, in 2002, though I don’t think I became a huge fan until I heard his collaboration with Calexico a few years later: 2005’s “In the reins” EP. I found it interesting, then, when I recently learned that the songs on his debut were meant to be filled in by members of Calexico but instead, the demo versions he recorded in his home studio were released as the version of “The creek that drank the cradle” we know and love.

“Lion’s mane” is the opening track and if you’re not familiar with the album, it is representative of the old school folk you’re going to hear with the rest, simple but compelling, and reminiscent of Nick and Paul and all those kids. The song is lo-fi and sparse and intimate and immediate, the simplicity never becoming tired. The acoustic guitar and banjo take turns being lovingly plucked, while Beam softly whispers the vocals without sounding affected. There’s just no need to be loud with such idyllic, woodsy, rustic sounds. You can almost smell the pine, wood smoke, sounds of crickets, and the wind the rustling through the leaves. No, there’s no cell phone signal here or wi-fi or television. Just wood stove coffee and pipe tobacco and periodically walking down to the lake to catch the cool off the water. Lovely stuff.