''The Shepherd's Dog'' is the third full-length studio album by

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 September 25, 2007. If bought at select retailers or if pre-ordered through Sub Pop, the album comes with a bonus disc featuring two unreleased tracks. " Boy with a Coin" is the first single and was released on July 10, 2007 via

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 ...

, including the single edit of the song along with two other tracks. The album debuted at number 24 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling about 32,000 copies in its first week. In 2008, " Flightless Bird, American Mouth" was used in the movie ''

Twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this il ...

''. The song was specifically chosen for the film's prom scene by Kristen Stewart, the female lead, and appears on the movie's soundtrack.

Critical response

On its release ''The Shepherd's Dog'' received widespread critical acclaim. 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 34 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". The album was ranked at #10 in '' Paste's'' list of top albums of 2007. "Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car" was #86 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''s list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.No byline (December 11, 2007)
"The 100 Best Songs of 2007"
''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved 2007-12-21 '' Pitchfork'' included the album in their Top 50 Albums of 2007 ranking it at number 36. "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" was a key track used in the 2008 film ''

'', part of ''

the Twilight Saga The Twilight Saga may refer to: * ''Twilight'' (novel series), a novel series by Stephenie Meyer. * ''The Twilight Saga'' (film series), a film series on based the novel series by Stephenie Meyer * '' The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated ...

''. The song is closely associated to the successful movie franchise and an acoustic version of the song was also used in '' The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1''.

Track listing

Personnel

''The Shepherd's Dog'' was performed by: *Sam Beam *Sarah Beam *Jim Becker *Rob Burger *Joey Burns *Brian Deck *EJ Holowicki *John Kattke *Matt Lux *Patrick McKinney *Paul Niehaus

Bonus disc

# "Arms of a Thief" - 3:41 # "Serpent Charmer" - 2:40

Charts

Certifications

References

External links

Iron and Wine Sics ''Shepherd's Dog'' on Fans This FallIron and Wine Reveals ''Shepherd's Dog'' Track list
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shepherds Dog, The Iron & Wine albums 2007 albums Sub Pop albums