Fat Possum [Old]
2007
In Field & Town
About This Album
Fans of Iron & Wine didn't have to wait long before Sam Beam's hushed, lo-fi recordings gave way to the Technicolor lushness of Woman King and The Shepherd's Dog. Hayden, on the other hand, has spent more than a decade creating somber, subdued music, which makes In Field & Town such a startlingly pleasant change. Hayden hasn't done away with the intimacy of his previous work, nor does the singer's seventh studio album change his melancholic nature. For all intents and purposes, In Field & Town paints the same picture as Elk-Lake Serenade and The Closer I Get, but it does so with brighter colors and wider brush strokes, capturing the slow demise of a relationship with a mix of pianos, trumpets, guitars, vibraphones, harmonica, and percussion. It's always autumn or winter in Hayden's world, and these 11 tracks bypass the springlike feel of puppy love, focusing instead on the unraveling of hope and adoration. "Take it easy," he cautions on the opening title track, a song whose chugging bass loop and percussion clash with the foreboding lyrics. "I see us around this uptight town," it continues, "with emptiness just weighing us down.
Track List (try tracks 3,4,5,6,7,9,10 and 11)

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