The relationship with Laraine ended soon after, and he retreated, brooding, to Somerset.
It's not quite a Dylan-at-Newport moment, but the transformation of Sam Beam (a k a Iron and Wine) from brooding to breezy has longtime fans taking sides.
Each of the nine jewel-like miniatures in the cycle – mostly under five minutes in length – possesses a beguiling ambiguity, from brooding to pitch black, interrupted by flashes of light.
Starting small, with oddly tweaked vocal samples and ominous-sounding piano, the first half is brilliantly brooding, to the point where the first chorus of "I love these streets but they weren't meant for me to walk" arrives at the 45-second mark just as all the music drops away completely.
He's such an inspiration, and a model of masculinity that transcends the resentment clearly on show everywhere, from the deposed politician who spends his time plotting and brooding, to the vindictive journalist, to the laid-off factory worker humiliated by his lack of power.
The element of surprise and real revelation is at the core of "The Spitfire Grill," which segues from dour to down-home, from brooding to uplift, from jubilation to, well, the movie was called a tear-jerker, but that sounds manipulative.
