''Our Endless Numbered Days'' is the second full-length album from

Iron & Wine Samuel "Sam" Ervin Beam (born July 26, 1974), better known by his stage name Iron & Wine, is an American singer-songwriter. He has released six studio albums, several EPs and singles, as well as a few download-only releases, which include a ...

. Released on March 23, 2004 on

Sub Pop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...

, it was the first non-solo effort by

Sam Beam Samuel "Sam" Ervin Beam (born July 26, 1974), better known by his stage name Iron & Wine, is an American singer-songwriter. He has released six studio albums, several extended play, EPs and Single (music), singles, as well as a few music downloa ...

under his Iron & Wine moniker. Limited edition copies of the vinyl LP came with a bonus 7" vinyl single. Limited edition copies of the CD came with a bonus CD single. On January 29, 2019, Sub Pop announced that a deluxe edition of the album commemorating its 15th anniversary would be released on March 22, 2019, featuring previously unreleased demos of eight of the tracks from the original album. The album's title comes from the lyrics of the song "Passing Afternoon": "There are things that drift away like our endless, numbered days."

Background

The album marked a change in Iron & Wine's sound, as it was his first produced in a professional studio. Beam's only previous album, ''

The Creek Drank the Cradle ''The Creek Drank the Cradle'' is the first studio album by the American musician Iron & Wine (aka Sam Beam). It was released on September 24, 2002. The vinyl LP release had a bonus 7" vinyl single. The promotional CD for this album was released i ...

'', was recorded entirely on a four-track tape recorder at his home.

Reception

''Our Endless Numbered Days'' has received widespread critical acclaim since its release. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 84, based on 21 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians *Sam Beam - vocals, guitars, slide guitars, banjo, mandolin *Brian Deck - drums, percussion, keyboards *EJ Holowicki - bass *Patrick McKinney - electric guitar *Jeff McGriff - percussion *Jonathan Bradley - percussion *Sarah Beam - harmony vocals

Appearances in Popular Media

"Passing Afternoon" was played at the end of "Wilson's Heart," the finale of the fourth season of ''

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

''. "Naked as We Came," "Trapeze Swinger" (a song not in this album) and "Sunset Soon Forgotten" were featured in the 2004 dramedy '' In Good Company''. "Each Coming Night" is featured in

Miley Cyrus Miley Ray Cyrus ( ; born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her distinctive raspy voice, her music spans across varied styles and genres, including pop, country, rock, hip hop ...

's 2010 film '' The Last Song''. "Naked As We Came" is featured at the end of the 4th episode of the 2nd season of ''

The L Word ''The L Word'' is a television drama that aired on Showtime from January 18, 2004 to March 8, 2009. The series follows the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual women who live in West Hollywood, California. The premise originated with Ilene Ch ...

'', when Jenny has her hair cut by Shane. "Naked As We Came" is also featured in the 9th episode of the first season of '' Grey's Anatomy'', when Cristina and Izzie plan a secret autopsy of a patient's sudden death.

Claire Fuller Claire Fuller (born 9 February 1967 in Oxfordshire) is an English author. She won the 2015 Desmond Elliott Prize for her first novel, '' Our Endless Numbered Days'', the BBC Opening Lines Short Story Competition in 2014, and the Royal Academy & ...

's 2015 debut novel, '' Our Endless Numbered Days'', is named after the album.

References

2004 albums Iron & Wine albums Sub Pop albums Albums produced by Brian Deck {{2000s-folk-album-stub