I like Whitney. I really do. I bet they’d like me if we met. I went to their latest concert in Toronto and thoroughly enjoyed their solid, albeit slight, output. By now you may be waiting for the ‘but’ so here it is: But I’m not sure why they released Light Upon The Lake: The Demos a mere year after dropping said debut. Was it to show how very similar their final product is to the original demos? Was it to show how the final polished album is better, with a cleaner sound, sweeter vocals and a more driving feel to it? Or was it to show that there isn’t a whole lot of back catalogue material for them to draw upon?

The big difference is that the demo is missing “Red Moon” and, to make things confusing, the title song of the album itself, “Light Upon the Lake”. There are two ‘new’ tracks that fans will be happy to get their ears on: “You and Me” and a cover of Alan Toussaint’s “Southern Nights”. I can attest to the delight fans felt in hearing them play that last song when I saw them live. “Another Song! Hooray! The concert will be longer than I thought!” This provides a clue as to what’s going on. As the band says in their press release, they have been touring nearly non-stop for two years. And they have been remarkably successful with only that one album. They may be feeling pressure to put out some new material.

They did release a two song EP earlier this year (You’ve Got A Woman/Gonna Hurry), featuring, like here, an original and a cover. I was happy to hear it – though, like the demo, it was not up to the standard of their debut. They should have released the new songs as another EP. The demo is a curiosity which you can safely ignore (unless you’re a die-hard, although buying only the two new songs would likely suffice even so).

Apparently, the band is looking to complete a second album soon. I hope they don’t rush out material for the sake of doing so but take the time they need to match their first great outing. Because I like Whitney, and I hope they still like me after this review.

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I was really looking forward to seeing what Son Little would do with his new album. His first full length self-titled release established him as someone looking to rework the blues and R&B canon in a new way (or to travel some forgotten byways). That album was  spectral, spooky, and a little freaky. It called to mind Screaming Jay Hawkins or Andre Williams. It really grew on me. So, I was looking forward to how he would push things forward on this new outing. Initially, however, I felt let down. It seemed too simple and not so much a reinvention of the blues as a rehashing of them. It is more accessible, at times upbeat, and almost happy. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it wasn’t what I was expecting. After repeat listens, however, I came to appreciate it on its own merits. A couple of the tracks are standout: “Blue Magic” and “Charging Bull.” These fall into that category of songs you should be hearing a lot on the radio and could act as a tasty bridge between Leon Bridges and Gary Clarke Jr. on a playlist.

Son Little was, apparently, looking for a new direction after the success of his first album. He ultimately found himself on the wild north coast of Australia where he was struck by inspiration and wrote these songs on a left-handed guitar that he borrowed from a blind Aborigine who played it upside-down. Just writing that down makes me wish he had a song about that whole experience. We shouldn’t be upset when artists take new avenues and try and reinvent themselves. But it’s hard. While I like New Magic, it seems more of a breather before he (hopefully) takes another foray into the musical wilds. I hope he comes back with a song about a blind Aborigine musician and his upside down guitar.

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Beast Epic, the sixth album by Iron & Wine, marks a self-described revisiting of the past. How so? First, it’s put out by Sub Pop, his first record label, and, secondly, in terms of sound. Recording everything live and employing minimal overdubbing gives the album a warm and intimate sound.

What does it sound like? To me, it could easily be on a playlist with Nick Drake, Bon Iver, Passenger, and Lord Huron. This is an album that you would play with the windows down on a warm summer night driving on a country road singing along to loudly (although perhaps not well). Or perhaps you would listen to it around a campfire with friends drinking craft beer or chilled wine, grooving your head and quietly singing to yourself with repressed feeling.

What does Beast Epic mean? Apparently, a Beast Epic is “a long, usually allegorical verse narrative in which the characters are animals with human feelings and motives”. But why name a warm and lovely-sounding album that? It makes it sound rough and scary – and it’s anything but.

“Mostly because it sounds really fucking cool!  However, with that said and perhaps to be completely honest, ‘a story where animals talk and act like people’ sounds like the perfect description for the life of any of us.  If not that, then it’s at least perfect for any group of songs I’ve ever tried to make,” explains Sam Beam, the man behind Iron & Wine and thus behind Beast Epic itself.

This is a mellow and enjoyable album. The lead single, “Calling It Dreaming”, is the standout track and deserves to be heard a lot this summer. In fact, the album could act as a summer soundtrack (see late night drives and campfires above) and that maybe is its weakness. Aside from the lead single and a couple of other tracks, it has a certain sameness to the sound, which means the songs blend into one another, like a soundtrack can. It could have used more of the “beast” afforded by the title.

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