Alex Ebert's latest album from his psychedelic magical mystery band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes continues the mythology of a messianic front-man on a mission to free people's minds from hate. The music can be best described in simplest terms as Pink Floyd meets Bob Dylan. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes' first album "Up From Below" (released in 2009) is an infectiously catchy take on modern folk music, and their second offering "Here" is-well, of course-here. It brings the same big band folk vibe from the first album and has a much cleaner sound, whereas "Up From Below" had more ambient sounds and banter from the band in the background. There are less exciting get-up-and-dance songs and a lack of heavily layered soundscapes compared to the first album, but there is variety in songwriting and genre-bending on "Here."
Track Listing
1. "Man on Fire"
2. "That's What's Up"
3. "I Don't Wanna Pray"
4. "Mayla"
5. "Dear Believer"
6. "Child"
7. "One Love to Another"
8. "Fiya Wata"
9. "All Wash Out"
The first thing I think of when Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes comes to mind is David Bowie. First of all, Alex Ebert's style of singing matches David Bowie's intensity at times, and also the phrase Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes sounds an awful lot like Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Both Edward Sharpe and Ziggy Stardust are fictitious figureheads of a generation of music. "Here" is not a concept album like "Ziggy Stardust", but I would enjoy seeing some sort of conceptual musical narrative from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, like a contemporary "Tommy" (The Who pioneered rock operas such as "Tommy"). Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes already released a music video of their previous single "40 Day Dream" that gives a hint of the purpose behind the persona of Edward Sharpe, but nothing to blow your mind over.
"Here" opens on a strong number with "Man On Fire" that starts of very soft with just lyrics and acoustic guitar, but ends on a ragtime jam with percussion, an upright piano melody and a choir of backing vocals. I probably should have mentioned this earlier: there are a lot of people in the Magnetic Zeroes, not including Alex it counts to nine core musicians with another six additional musicians to add even more instruments to the mix. To say this music is ambitious is an understatement. It certainly breaks away from the traditional folk music mold, and anything that explores new directions in aging genres is a welcome innovation.
Many of the songs on "Here" are pseudo-religious in nature in both music and words. Songs like "That's What's Up" and "I Don't Want To Pray" have a gospel rhythm, the later song especially tackling conventional religious views head on. "That's What's Up" praises the virtue's of love towards your fellow man, and "I Don't Want To Pray" is an outright rejection of religious authority. The lyrics invoke natural imagery and the inherent freedom of nature. It makes sense to imagine that if you are one with nature, that would making praising God unnecessary because your oneness with creation makes praying obsolete. It's safe to say that "Here" is not your grandfather's folk record. These religious themes also tie in with the Edward Sharpe mystery of being a chosen one for some divine purpose. It's not explicit but it's implied, which should make for some interesting new material to see how far Alex Ebert can take the story behind Edward Sharpe.
The laid back tunes of many tracks on "Here" make a majority of the songs relaxing to listen to. The rhythm's of "Mayla" and "One Love To Another" invoke some of the heady grooves of Bob Marley. It is hard to put it into words because "Here" is not a reggae album by any stretch of the imagination, but the waves of good vibes are there just like in Marley's classic jams. This album is so laid back, even the backing members of the band receive their own songs to sing, as Jade does in "Fiya Wata", who previously had an entire song on "Up From Below" dedicated to her free-spirited nature.
Although "Here" is a concise album with a solid line up of songs written in various genres, it misses some of the magic that their previous effort contained. There are no emotional roller coasters like "Home", or dynamic textures as heard on "Desert Song", both hit tracks from "Up From Below." The songs are less memorable this time around, so chalk it up to a sophomore slump. It's not a bad recording by any means, which makes me hopeful there are new songs on the way that are going to blow the socks off music listeners everywhere. Overall a good effort, but leaves something to be desired, and if you have an itch for new folk music this album will delightfully scratch it.
***/***** (3 stars out of five)
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