Why Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is the Best Band (This Week)

I remember I discovered music as young child.  My father had a record player and a number of record albums.  I remember pulling out a number of albums and listening to them over again, never getting tired of them.  Some of them were classic records, records by the Doors, Donavan, Cat Stevens, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, songs one might hear on an oldies station or even a classic rock station. 

But the records that he owned that I enjoyed most were his folk albums, records released by the Kingston Trio and the New Christy Minstrels.  There was something about the use of unconventional, traditional instruments like banjoes and harmonicas paired with multiple voices.  There was something neat about the music which seemed unpretentious and accessible.  There were no stars, no personalities, just music.

For some reason, the folk of that era disappeared, covered up by rock and roll and by disco and soul and eventually rap and dance, and so on, so that folk had all but disappeared.  And then Uncle Tupelo appeared, picked up the folk from the embers, and blew on it so that eventually, folk made a revival, a revival which made possible for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros to come onto the scene.

“Home,” the first hit by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, came out of nowhere and made its rounds on a number of music services.  I remember it being played often on Pandora, and, once I had heard it, I fell in love with it immediately.  It had all the elements of the classic folk songs of my childhood.  It begun with whistling and a bass rhythm which bounced you forward.  Then we hear the voices of Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos, a rustic accent with woody overtones.  Horns then follow up leading to the chorus of other members of the band singing together.  It calls to mind images of sitting around a fire at a sing-a-long.  And then, right smack in the middle of the song, we hear the conversation between Ebert and Castrinos, a sweet sentimental recollection to drive home the point of the song. 

With “Home,” Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros had all the makings of being a one-hit wonder.  And I suppose, having heard “Home,” that would have been enough for me. 

But Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros seemingly has well of material to pull from and the ear to interpret and record it.  The songs are surprising catching you unaware so that, when listening to the album, they inhabit the body, striking deeper chords than thought obvious.  One song, I had not given much credit to initially, “On Nashi Me” has become one of my favorites.  There is not much to the song, a repeated progression of chords and kind of chanting of the song’s title.  But then, upon listening to it, the subtleties come out, the mixture of horns, flutes, voices, which come forward and then recede like waves, so that you get enveloped into the ocean of it all.  

The second release by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, entitled Here, is just as powerful.  I expected the second album to be less interesting and perhaps more of the same of the first.  How surprised I was to see that there was still plenty room for growth.  And grow the band did.  The first track on the album called “Man on Fire,” is magical in its quietness, a sort of wandering song.  I sense a darkness in the song, the reference to the pains and woes of life, which is quickly set aside when the chorus comes around.  It is a spiritual song, for sure, but not overly so. 

“I Don’t Wanna Pray” seems also controversial, the lyrics going against conventional spiritual thought.  And yet, the song reflects elements of revival and spiritual music.  The message is clear, a rejection traditional notions of faith, eschewing the former ways of practice, and, instead developing a more naturalistic idea of faith and prayer, the acceptance of both good and evil as a part of the world, God’s world.  It is a practice of faith suggesting prayer through living, not stagnation.

The third release is also good and reflects growth.  The first track “Better Days” strips away some of the more folksy elements of the band’s sound.  It starts beautifully with a non-traditional rhythm, somewhat reminiscent of a beat more appropriate in a dance song, but lays on top of that the same rich combination of voice present in most of there songs.  Like so many of Edward Shape and the Magnetic Zeros other songs, “Better Days” is  a song of redemption and hope.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have discovered an untapped source of ideas in the music tradition, one that other newer folk bands like Mumford and Sons and Fleet Floxes have yet to fully utilize.  There is a depth to the music, both dark and hopeful at the same time.  I don’t know where the band might go from here, but, they manage to come back and make an album every bit as good as the former.  I expect that the next album will be just as well done.