//photo by autumn
So this is the band that makes NPR commentators weep with emotion? This is the band the LA press is all over right now? I actually got put on to them by checking out a random email in the blog mailbox and I can tell you in all honesty that after 20 minutes of listening to the album and watching videos, I was tearing up myself. Alex Ebert (formerly of the band Ima Robot) and the rest of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros show an amazing amount of heart in the thirteen songs that make up their album Up From Below. Even so, their studio recordings sometimes sound a bit sterile. Where they really shine is in their live performances. I dare you to watch the video of their song “Home”, which was filmed during their very first show, and not have your heart swell up a couple of sizes. There is just something about seeing two people in love up on stage, singing a song to each other that they wrote together, while people scream and cheer around them. It’s basically a celebration of Love (which I think is what they are going for in the end), and that can’t not affect you in some way. People have been pretty harsh to them in reviews and have mangled their record trying to fit it into a nice, neat category. I won’t deny that it’s pretty hard to miss the comparisons to Arcade Fire (or the especially scathing description “hippie version of Arcade Fire”) and some other psych/folk acts of late, but you have to move passed that in order to enjoy it in a new light. Plus, when did Arcade Fire put a patent on punctuating drum hits with “Hey” and having five people sing at once anyways? The band is coming to San Francisco in September so go and make yourself happy for two hours (god know you could use it).
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Home
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Up From Below
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – 40 Day Dream
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Desert Song
Bonus:
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Home (video)
