There are some bands that look like little sects, but nice ones, and you surprise yourself imagining them traveling in little old-fashioned buses with flowers in their hair, singing along to their own tunes. I imagine the Polyphonic Spree being like that but also Edward Sharpe and the magnetic zeros who borrow the same happy-go-lucky feeling to the Spree.
Their first full-length recording, ‘Up from Below,’ was released in 2009 on Vagrant Records and I managed to see them twice last year.
But Edward Sharpe (Alex Ebert of the group Ima Robot) is on a mission to save us (or to save himself ?) with his music and enthusiasm. That’s exactly what he means, after breaking up with his girlfriend, Alex came up with this character Edward Sharpe who was “sent down to Earth to heal and save mankind — but he kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love.” Who does he think he is? Jesus Christ with a horny side? Some superhero with a libido? First, he looks underfed, with long hair, always bare feet, like some kind of master yogi in disguise, but he wants to give love, love and love…
I don’t know exactly why but the first track,‘40 Day Dream’, reminds me a little of ELO’s ‘livin’ thing,’ it’s that sort of guilty pleasure. But it largely borrows to the Beatles too, ‘It’s the magical mystery kind’… very much ‘Magical Mystery Tour.’
The music is contagious, it’s a naïve and childish adventure which may approach a religious experience at times, or a reincarnation of the good old days, a Woodstock festival on its own. Listen to the extremely happy ‘Janglin’ and you’ll be jumping for days. And he is pushing his image of messianic figure very far with lines like ‘We come back to Heal ya – Janglin soul’ ‘I said we’re out to prove the truth of/The man from Galilei.’
He cultivates even more his Christ-like demeanor in ‘Up from below,’ a great song with some gospel/country feeling: ‘I was only five when my dad told me I’d die.’ […] ‘Cuz I’ve already suffered I want you to know God/I’m ridin’ on Hell’s hot flames comin’ up from below/Herowind and rain blowing out my window pain.’
He has suffered for our (his?) sins, but he is rising from inferno! Now, that herowind is a great find, ‘Herowind,…. Heroin, …or could it be because of ’Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth’?
The honky-tonk ‘Home’ is a song that tells how he fell in love with Jade, the female singer of the band: ‘Home is wherever I’m with you.’…. aaaawww that’s cute, now if someone would write a song like this for me!
‘Jade’ is their ‘Something in the way she moves’ (well yes, another Beatles reference) with a moving trumpet solo, whereas some other songs (‘Carries on’) sound like prayers, or incantations, or even mantras (‘Om Nashi me’) powerful enough to put a spell on you.
So after all this cascade of affection, this inundation of love, you can ask yourself if this gospel is convincing. Well, at one of their concerts, just after a few minutes, people around me were so friendly that a girl said ‘Oh now we’re like a big family!’
I told you, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are our saviors, they are here to save us from boredom at least only for the time they make us dance and sing at the top of our lungs.