Album: Iron And Wine, Around the Well (Sub Pop)

Sam Beam's output as Iron And Wine has been so scattered across various formats that he's the exception that proves the rule about mop-up compilations of outtakes and B-sides not being worth the bytes bitten off to burn them.

That said, a whole two CDs is pushing things a bit: there are moments during the first disc of Beam's early home recordings when one simply loses track of which song is playing. And it's not just the arrangements: Beam's lyrical world is constructed from a portfolio of recurrent touchstone images that his songs can sometimes seem like inverted, cat's cradle versions of each other. As his ambitions swell through the second CD, with electric and tack piano, eastern percussion, backwards guitar, recorder and accordion, and a deeper susurrus of harmonies, stirred gently into the arrangements, tracks such as "Serpent Charmer" and "Carried Home" emit satisfyingly hypnotic waves of contentment. Some unusual versions of songs by Stereolab, Flaming Lips and New Order also make the smooth transition to Beam's folksy world, none more engagingly than his prized cover of The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights".

Download this: 'Serpent Charmer', 'Carried Home', 'Kingdom Of The Animals', 'The Trapeze Swinger', 'Such Great Heights'