The lead singer of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe is supposedly his childhood alter-ego), began his musical career fronting a rather unsuccessful power-pop band. While my reservations about the merits of power-pop are legion, they are not within the scope of this review, so let me just say that I was not particularly optimistic about the quality of Ebert's songwriting capabilities. But his band's debut album, Up From Below, happily dispels all criticism I envisaged myself levelling at it. The band display a craft that many indie bands nowadays seem to have eschewed; throughout the course of the album we see songs as expansive and triumphant as 'Home,' to the baroque/cabaret stylings of 'Black Water,' to the alt-country offerings such as 'I Come In Please.' Perhaps the most pleasing facet of the album is Ebert's commitment to creating pop songs that do not dissolve into formulaic repetitions of the same chords, ad infinitum (I'm looking at you, Mumford & Sons). Make no mistake, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros are not breaking new ground as far as indie-folk goes, and they aren't as good as bands such as Fleet Foxes (but you'd be hard pressed to find a band that are FF's equal), they are still well worth a listen.
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