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With his grandest album to date, mark the return of Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam a triumphant one, packed with romantic tales of small towns, countrysides and the expansive sea.

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Entertainment Weekly

Once the shock of Beam's experimental bent wears off, it becomes clear that he's added dimension to his style without sacrificing its gorgeous tranquility. [28 Sep 2007, p.107]

All Music Guide

The Shepherd's Dog goes a long way towards validating all the attention I&W have been getting; it's their best, most diverse and listenable record yet as Beam and co. take another leap away from the lo-fi one dude in a bedroom beginnings of the group.

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Sputnikmusic

The Shepherd's Dog proves that Beam is worthy of the attention that he is given and actually a brilliant musical mind rather than some guy who got lucky enough to make a great album in his bedroom.

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Hot Press

Intimate, literate and wonderfully executed, Iron & Wine seem to have made one of the albums of the year. Don’t let it pass you by.

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No Ripcord

By pushing pop into the dreary without all the drab, Iron and Wine strikes a balance of truth and hope that can get muddled by a scene dominated by pessimists.

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Alternative Press

Sam Beam has returned with a third full-length that rivals just about anything in his small but illustrious catalog. [Nov 2007, p.162]

Paste Magazine

Beam has managed to tweak and inﬂate his signature sound without sacriﬁcing any of its considerable charm.

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Lost At Sea

Whether blazing a tight new trail or feeling its way in the darkness, each tune on the album heads somewhere, collectively making as much of a stylistic progression as the recording of "Our Endless Numbered Days" made in fidelity and depth.

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Pitchfork

The Shepherd's Dog is Iron & Wine's most diverse and progressive album yet, a deft transition to a very different sound that explores new territory while preserving the best aspects of Beam's earlier recordings.

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Prefix Magazine

I think The Shepherd's Dog is probably Iron & Wine's best record to date (Beam has never once even made a mediocre album, so this says a lot).

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Stylus Magazine

Ultimately, it's that broken, half-told beauty that gives Dog its mystery, but also perhaps its feel of a record you may always like but around which you may never really feel completely comfortable.

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Magnet

By maintaining his intimacy while armed with a full palette of colors, Beam sets himself far apart from the rest of the hush-and-shush crowd. [Fall 2007, p.98]

Tiny Mix Tapes

Where music fails to tell a story, Beam’s lyricism fills in the details.

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Q Magazine

Like quicksand, it's subtle, surprising and utterly absorbing. [Oct 2007, p.98]

Delusions of Adequacy

This record is vast, playful, and most importantly, an absolute joy to listen to.

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PopMatters

The Shepherd’s Dog is the most successful merger yet of Beam’s meticulously constructed songs with adventurous arrangements that move further and enthusiastically away from the band’s pious beginnings.

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Blender

The whiff of apocalypse is unmistakable. Yet the scent of wildflowers and lovers’ musk wins out.

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The New York Times

The Shepherd’s Dog is the brilliant culmination of his experiments.

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Amazon.com

More definitive than ever, the rhythm and percussion complement Beam's voice, a lulling, almost eerie tone that occasionally recalls John Lennon's early solo work

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BBC collective

The result is a folk album so rich and intricate that, in scope, it's comparable to Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks."

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Drowned In Sound

What really stands out is how …Dog literally hits the ground running from its opener, 'Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car,' cutting a clear slice from the organic and distinctive junkyard percussion and deep-fried blues stomps of Tom Waits.

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Uncut

It is, by any measure, a quiet revolution.

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Spin

The real orchestration is in Beam's voice, a sigh so angelic it masks the religious turmoil within. [Oct 2007, p.106]

Under The Radar

It is Beam at his best and a fitting conclusion to an album that shows why Iron & Wine continues to be the standard bearer for neofolk and beyond. [Summer 2007, p.74]

Billboard

The result is an album of tremendous fullness: The sound is dense, the lyrics are complex, and the production is top-drawer.

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NOW Magazine

Beam has managed to maintain some of the intimate charm of his home recordings by cleverly trading a conventional trap drum kit for hand percussion. It works wonders to make an elaborate production seem smaller and more organic while strengthening the music's rhythmic component.

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cokemachineglow

I don’t think it’s too harsh to suggest that each Iron & Wine album is not a step forward so much as a more sophisticated look at the same paces.

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The Phoenix

On his third Iron & Wine full-length, he goes for his biggest sound yet, but the production is mere window dressing for some of his best songwriting.

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Rolling Stone

Beam finally brings the blood, instrumental colors and quirky but fluid arrangements that make explicit the worry and wounds running red in his Southern-gothic stories and dead-love letters.

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Dusted Magazine

The Shepherd’s Dog is a step forward for Iron and Wine in many ways. The only moments where it falters are where the tonal characteristics gesture toward the past. When it shines, however, The Shepherd’s Dog’s clever songwriting and creative instrumentation makes for the most complete record Beam has ever recorded.

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New Musical Express

Joey Burns and Paul Niehaus from Calexico take part on 'The Shepherd's Dog,' dovetailing neatly with Beam's vividly personal lyrics and ear for gentle, haunting melody.

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Austin Chronicle

Though the LP culminates a clear progression for Beam, Iron & Wine coalescing since 2005's "Woman King" into a band secure enough to experiment, the barrage of instrumentation and effects do little to advance the songs on The Shepherd's Dog.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Beam invests each track of The Shepherd's Dog with a unique tone and a singular, even gimmicky arrangement.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 41 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ashley T. gave it a10:
By far the best Iron and Wine album to date.

Guy H gave it an8:
Intriguing lyrics and a patchwork of different textures that blend perfectly over repeated listens. Innocent Bones and Resurrection Fern are stunning. A couple of slight lulls but with this level of experimentation that is what you expect.

Dave F. gave it a10:
Just gorgeous music. Rich, moving, original - please play South Africa one day senor Beam!

Cables gave it a10:
Overtime, it has revealed itself to be my favorite album of the year. Once you surrender yourself to the albums pacing and wordplay, allowing time to take its course and melodies to sink in, it never lets you go.

Jw. gave it a10:
I can only disagree that the sound and lyrics are distinctly southern. Truth is, they sound right at home up here in the Pacific Northwest, too. It's a perfect album for fall, and specifically well-suited for cold college towns. Made me wish I was still in school. Top to bottom the best album so far this year - and it's getting late.

Isaac A. gave it a10:
Sheer glorious warm brilliance from start to finish. Only the second album of 2007 that my girlfriend and I can agree is brilliant (the first is Mr Hudson & The LIbrary, by the way).

Vincent H. gave it a10:
I really truly love the first 2 albums (like everyone else), but after listening to "The Shepherd's Dog numerous times, I would have to say I think this is his best album yet. There's literally like 1 song that I skip, other than that, this is a masterpiece through-and-through. Beam takes risks both musically and lyrically, and it pays off. In every aspect, from the songs themselves to the production to the vocals, are all elevated on this album to a whole other level. If you like indie rock/pop, get this album ASAP.

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