Home

A few weeks ago Sara mentioned to me that she was enjoying a band called Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I would’ve been sold on the strength of the name alone; a friend’s recommendation was more than enough to make me resolve to give them a listen.

It took me a couple of weeks, though (and an additional tweet from Matt) before I got around to it. To be honest, I’m not sure I’m a fan of the album. I find large parts of it to be a bit boring; other parts remind me — for reasons I can’t quite identify — of the sort of bloated, Fleetwood-Mac-ian WASH-FM rock that echoes off receptionist desks all over this town.

But “Home” — goddamn, what a song.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Home

There are a lot of things to like about it. I could’ve been counted as a fan on the basis of the Morricone-isms alone. And I’m a complete sucker for the female vocal, which has the sort of breathy, stretching-after-a-nap timbre that only happens when a really cute girl picks up a serious cigarette habit.

But more than that, it’s an amazing recorded performance between the two singers, one that evokes a genre tradition but invigorates it with a sense of utter, honest vulnerability. I haven’t heard anything like it in a while.

If someone stuck you in a studio, said “We’re rolling, try to sound in love“, could you do it this well? I’m left completely charmed, slightly wary, and unsure whether to believe in the singers’ talents or (god) their love. I may vaguely hate them for making me write that sentence, but I can’t deny that the sound they make together is miraculous.