Search - Iron & Wine :: Such Great Heights

Music that trancends all rational expectations of what good

Benjamin Ballard | Charm City | 07/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This single release of "Such Great Heights" is easily the best single that I can remember.



While Sam Beam's cover of the Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" got a bit overplayed and overexposed with its inclusion in Garden State and later in, of all places, M&M's commercials, it is still a masterful cover in every sense of the word. Not since Johnny Cash has an artist covered a song so well and effectively making it his own. Beam's delicate voice gently croons the opening line "I'm thinking it's a sign that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images and when we kiss they're perfectly aligned" over a beautifully simplistic, stripped down version of a song that becomes such a far cry from the poppy, electronic original.



The radio sessions of The Trapeze Swinger and Naked As We Came are also pure aural pleasure. Beam bottles lightning twice with flawless live takes of these two beautiful songs that seem to fit thematically together. "Naked As We Came" speaks to a couple in which one dies prior to the other and "The Trapeze Swinger" is a bit of a self eulogy imploring the ones left behind to remember the good times spent together.



While somewhat pricey for three songs, it is worth every penny. Put on headphones, shut your eyes and let Sam Beam's voice carry you where it will, evoking deep emotions along the way."