Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes

The third album from Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros ploughs the same indie folk furrow as its chart conquering predecessors. The occasional excursions into other stylistic territory notwithstanding, with their easy-listening sound and inoffensive, hippie-ish image, it’s quite possible that the band – led by one-time couple Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos – are exactly the sort of act Alice Cooper had in mind recently when opining that nu-folk combos needed to “eat a steak.”
Sadly though none of the tracks here are likely to have you leaping out of your seat with excitement. The likes of ‘Let’s Get High’ (a title which seems to summarise the Magnetic Zeros manifesto), ‘In The Lion’ and ‘Give Me A Sign’ all utilise the same basic template of hazy psychedelia, chilled rhythms and sweet harmonies. There’s a country flavour to ‘Remember To Remember’ and the suitably titled ‘Country Calling’; gospel influences infiltrate ‘This Life’ and there’s nod to Leonard Cohen on the melancholic ‘They Were Wrong’.
Generally, though, laidback folk is the order of the day and by the end, the album gets a little predictable. In his widely reported broadside against Mumford & Sons, the aforementioned Alice Cooper lamented that membership of a rock ‘n’ roll band used to mean “being an outlaw”. It may be a strange line coming from an avowedly apolitical, golf-playing born-again Christian, but it does nutshell the thought that Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros could do with injecting a little more attitude into their music.

Key Track: 'They Were Wrong'