In honor of me turning 30, I’m making mix CDs of my favorite songs from each of my 30 favorite musical artists/groups. Read the introductory post for more background information on my 30 at 30 project. Reminder: there is no scientific rationale for this list. They’re simply my personal favorites. Coming in at number 15 is Iron & Wine.
“Making music, the process of writing and recording, that’s all like daydreaming to me.” Those are the words of Samuel Beam—better known by his stage name, Iron & Wine—from a 2007 interview with Helen Brown for The Telegraph.
The quote sits well with me because listening to Iron & Wine’s music has always felt meditative and dreamlike to me. There was a time in the mid-2000s when I would drift off night after night listening to the final few tracks from Our Endless Numbered Days, “Fever Dream”, “Sodom, South Georgia”, and “Passing Afternoon”, all of which made it onto this compilation. Iron & Wine’s lush, soothing vocals effectively put my mind at ease and allow me to get lost in the moment in a way that few other artists can.
A blogger named DandyLyonWhine adeptly described Iron & Wine thusly: “If you’ve not heard Iron & Wine before you will discover an amazing and magical intimacy. No matter the volume, every Iron & Wine song sounds like it is whispered into your ear. It’s like you can feel his breath on the side of your face. There are no casual Iron & Wine fans, and the people who are not fans yet simply haven’t heard the song that Beam wrote for them.”