Finish off your summer with some of the sweetest sounds and hottest grooves. Here, our picks for the best new music.
Pagination
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Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s: Up From Below
Rough Trade Records, Community Music
What’s old is new again with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s debut album Up From Below. Although released in 2009, this Los Angeles based band is making new waves with their LSD-laced sounds of psychadelia. With new added momentum from the song “Janglin” featured in the 2011 Ford Fiesta commercial as well as “Home” in the film Cyrus, Edward Sharpe and the Zero’s are getting noticed on college radio (the epicenter of new, indie sounds) and now here on ELLECanada.com’s illustrious monthly music recommendations.
Led by Alex Ebert (formerly of Ima Robot) the collective mixes sounds ranging from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to Mumford and Sons interlaced with sprightly harmonies and whiskey-soaked lyrics. Edward Sharpe is the mind-bending creation of Ebert, a character sent down to Earth to save mankind (Who could have guessed that the messiah would be called Edward?)
The best song on the album, and perhaps the most recognizable, goes to “Home” where Ebert is joined by female vocalist Jade Castrinos. “Carries On” has a Partridge Family influence, not surprising since the band spent the summer of their release touring the States in a big white bus. There are a few tracks that are a bit too trippy for those of us born well outside of the summer of love. “Kisses Over Babylon” intertwines Spanish and English in a jambalaya of incomprehensible lyrics and trying-too-hard melodies.
Thankfully the next track “Brothers” brings the album back to a place we can understand and “Om Nashi Me” (whatever that means) somehow makes the sound of rain seem appropriate in a rock song without coming off too new age-y. I really like this album but it’s not for the musically unadventurous. Most people get Pad Thai when they order Thai food. This album is for those who go for Goong Dten (live shrimp).
Major Lazer and Jamie Lidell on the next page...
Feature image: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s
