Artist: Iron & Wine
Album: Ghost on Ghost

Sam Beam was once a lone bearded fellow toting a half-whispered cover of a Postal Service song. The beard remains, but only the echoes of his bedroom-quiet style have survived as Beam’s sound – and audience – has grown. “Ghost on Ghost” picks up right where “Kiss Each Other Clean” left off, which is somewhere in the shadow of his 2007 masterpiece, “The Shepherd’s Dog.” That album was a wild wagon ride through hazy country with Beam playing thoughtful observer through churches and cottages and cemeteries, pointing out the dark details in sunny scenes. It also found Beam surrounded with new instruments, each used to precise effect in transforming his campfire songs into full-bodied folk epics.

“Ghost on Ghost,” while good in its own right, feels far less intentional. Opener “Caught in the Briars” is almost a tease, with a signature Iron & Wine melody drowning in a mass of horns, strings, back-up vocals and other production touches that grow to feel more like smears. Several other songs evoke the feeling that you’re digging past added noise to uncover what could have been a great song. There’s a lot to love here, though – it is an Iron & Wine album. But when the final song comes in the form of an easy country ballad, it’s a reminder that there was even more to love when there was less.