''The Shepherd's Dog'' is the third full-length studio album by Iron & Wine, 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 an independent 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 (band), Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the gru ...

, 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 daylight illumination produced by diffuse sky radiation when the Sun is below the horizon as sunlight from the upper atmosphere is scattered in a way that illuminates both the Earth's lower atmosphere and also the Earth's surf ...

''. The song was specifically chosen for the film's prom scene by

Kristen Stewart Kristen Jaymes Stewart (born April 9, 1990) is an American actress and director. She has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and a César Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe ...

, 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 an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

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

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

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, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

''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 A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' 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 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