The wild, woolly gospel of
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros arrived in 2009, a self reinvention of lead singer/songwriter/bandleader
Alex Ebert, who was coming off his mid-aughts dance-punk unit
Ima Robot. Reborn as something of a messianic character leading an enormous hippie rock commune/caterwauling backing band,
Ebert worked with his
Zeros in an ever-anthemic framework on both 2009's debut
Up from Below and its 2012 follow-up
Here. Both these albums borrowed generously from a variety of classic rock radio staples and dorm-room favorites, weaving the influence of everyone from
the Doors to
Bob Marley into their tunes. Their third, self-titled album is much the same, but with a few key variants. The crystal-clear production of the earlier albums is replaced with a much more raw, even overdriven sound.
Ebert's vocals crackle both with his trademark emphatic delivery and also this newfound layer of production fuzz. Likewise, the instruments are a little more scuffed-up and lo-fi than on previous releases, with notably distorted drums meshing with a soup of defocused instruments. Another change this time around comes in the wandering song structures. The shuffling,
Sgt. Pepper's-indebted "Let's Get High" moves through a handclapping poppy section full of blurting brass and "high on love" choruses before slowing down into murky doo wop structures around the three-minute mark and eventually spending the last minute or so on swirling vocal chants. Uncommon structural turns like this happen throughout the album, with tracks like "If I Were Free" wandering into unexpected jammy sections. The
Beatles worship that was prevalent on
Up from Below returns with a vengeance, with multiple references to
Lennon/
McCartney compositions, sometimes as blatant as the crunchy guitar lead of "Oh! Darling" being appropriated for the chorus of
the Zeros' "This Life" and other times as subtle as a vocal affectation borrowed from
Let It Be. Vocalist
Jade Castrinos again joins
Ebert with her passionate howl, adding life to the record on her sole lead vocal tune, "Remember to Remember." Along with the
Beatles-borrowed marching band sounds and milky guitar tones, the band also tries on a '60s soul influence, bringing to mind
Devendra Banhart's fractured take on doo wop on tracks like "They Were Wrong." ~ Fred Thomas