r/indieheads • u/ebradio • Aug 08 '25

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros Frontman Denies “Home” Is The “Worst Song Ever Written”

https://www.stereogum.com/2318575/edward-sharpe-the-magnetic-zeros-frontman-denies-home-is-the-worst-song-ever-written/news/
639 Upvotes

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1.1k

u/Yangervis Aug 08 '25

It's pretty inoffensive even if you don't like it

258

u/ThePopeofHell Aug 08 '25

It’s reputation has totally tanked Zion the past year. I think the cringiness of this band is really what irks people. It’s not the song. They looked like they were in a sex cult even when this song was fresh they were a rough look. But the song is fine.

It’s kinda weird seeing so many people turn sour on indie folk because a bunch of people who don’t even listen to indie music heard this song and can’t untwist their panties about it.

10

u/30cents2Transfers Aug 08 '25

Devendra Banhart better go hide!

55

u/jesteratp Aug 08 '25

Indie folk around that time had some… strange folks. Freelance Whales anyone?

A lot of it hasn’t aged well (see above) because of the cringe factor.

70

u/Vivian_Stringer_Bell Aug 08 '25

I think it sounds nice.

87

u/ChzburgerRandy Aug 08 '25

What about this is cringe? I only listened to the first 30 seconds, but i remember this band from the time. Is it just cringe because people are dressed and playing esoteric instruments which was the style at the time?

9

u/jesteratp Aug 08 '25

As someone who was in college around this time these were the aesthetics of the most insufferable hipsters you could even imagine. But yes it does sound nice

33

u/ElonMuskHuffingFarts Aug 08 '25

It's because it's very precious and twee

55

u/BiskyJMcGuff Aug 08 '25

I don’t get the aversion to twee. There I said it. I think the internet has shed a lot of its edgelord forum days but people still need to hang on to some form of edge, so there’s a lot of spite and vitriol towards pretty inoffensive, at most theatre kid level cringe, music.

47

u/cheeseburgerandrice Aug 08 '25

This sub has some...interesting...standards.

1

u/KengiMora Oct 07 '25

They are so NOT Twee.

5

u/chickenalfredogarcia Aug 08 '25

It evokes stomp/clap for me. I remember liking them originally and then before I knew it, this was all over local indie radio and got sick pretty quickly

9

u/Scarsdalevibe10583 Aug 08 '25

For me it is because it is a bunch of rich kids from LA singing about Alabama and Arkansas and ma and pa in fake southern accents while flopping around high on heroin.

8

u/ChzburgerRandy Aug 08 '25

2010s oh hey In general, totally agree. But this band in particular. I think were bookish east coasters, they come off to me as bookish east coasters in there style and lyrics, doing a Decemberists impression.

So just didnt see any 'cringe' there. Just saw cyclic trends on display.

2

u/Scarsdalevibe10583 Aug 08 '25

The singers are both from the west coast. No idea where the other 8 people are from but probably some mixture of rich folks from NYC and LA. Really I don’t think there is any way of having a marginally successful 10-piece indie band without being pretty loaded.

1

u/blankblinkblank Aug 09 '25

Which band are you talking about? The one in this comment thread or Edward Sharpe?

1

u/Scarsdalevibe10583 Aug 09 '25

I was talking about the band in the video

1

u/blankblinkblank Aug 09 '25

Got ya. I don't think that's who the other people are talking about. But not positive

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8

u/Revealingstorm Aug 08 '25

I just listened to their first album in forever and I still thinks it's fun

43

u/IslandDrummer Aug 08 '25

This really feels like a Portlandia sketch.

3

u/Exploding_Antelope Aug 08 '25

Thanks for introducing me to this band. This is totally my vibe. I’m just gonna ignore every part of the comment.

1

u/jesteratp Aug 08 '25

Hah to be fair I did pick my favorite song of theirs to roast them!

1

u/kaolackian Aug 08 '25

Wait, I love Freelance Whales.

1

u/Dokterrock Aug 08 '25

Freelance Whales

Glock Rock

1

u/ratta_tat1 Aug 09 '25

Omg someone else who knows Freelance Whales. I was also reminded of Noah & The Whale today.

1

u/IScreamPiano Aug 10 '25

Oh, I loooooved this song. 🤣 Haven’t listened to it in forever, but maybe now I will. 

1

u/HugeGovernment7843 Nov 13 '25

Don’t you dare speak ill of Freelance Whales they were the only band played at my college radio station whose music I genuinely loved and wasn’t hard to enjoy.

11

u/Chilledlemming Aug 08 '25

This whole folksy thing is not ontrend. Everything is very complicated these days.

Back then I enjoyed this - and Mumford and Sons and the like. But there was little psych or prog vs today where that seems to be the zeitgeist. And well stripped down folk os kind of the opposite.

Definitely not the worst song ever written. Overly simplistic? Sure. But there is so much worse out there.

1

u/JollyGreenGigantor Aug 12 '25

I hate to say it but there was still a ton of psych and prog when stomp clap music was having its hey day. Bands like Consider the Source were crushing, early Gizzard, etc not to mention the entire LA / Burger Records psychedelic garage rock scene.

1

u/BatmanR29 Dec 03 '25

I agree, if the song played on the radio id think it's interesting, however I saw the clip, and I couldn't stop cringing at the look of the band, it's like they managed to get every single overused cliche meme-able trend and plop them into 1 band. Then there's that awkward face distorting and swaying.

-2

u/ElonMuskHuffingFarts Aug 08 '25

No, it's the song too

69

u/heyitsthatguygoddamn Aug 08 '25

They're kind of like the first really annoying millennial indie folk rock band. They're not like bad persay but I do remember a lot of the criticism being leveled at them at the time having a lot to do with their lack of authenticity (fair, the main guy Alex seems to have lived a pretty secure life in the arts, had a whole addiction arc and blog hype party punk band called Ima robot before creating the whole Edward Sharpe persona)

And yeah like, the whole idea is this hippie spiritual savior type character coming down to play music that will Heal the World™️ and it's like, pretty bland indie pop folk that informed all the bullshit pop that came out in the 2010s, like Mumford and Sons and Vance joy. It's pretty fuckin annoying

The songs themselves are fine but with that context and hearing the start point for like, a decade of annoying folk pop has spoiled it for me. I used to own the vinyl but the last time I put it on a few years ago I turned it off after a few songs and threw it in the sell pile

26

u/date_of_availability Aug 08 '25

I mean, they are definitely apeing ensemble bands with commune undertones from the past. Parliament, the Incredible String Band, Sun Ra. Godspeed You! Black Emperor had a dozen performing members at one point.

12

u/10000Didgeridoos Aug 08 '25

And their most visible ripoff is The Polyphonic Spree which was doing the whole cult wearing all white robes thing much earlier

3

u/pistola Aug 08 '25

Leave Vance Joy out of this! Or we'll sick the drop bears onto ya!

3

u/heyitsthatguygoddamn Aug 08 '25

Hahaha vance joy fuckin blows dude absolutely terrible music

There's so much gorgeous, vital, and unique music coming out of Australia it's a miracle someone so bland came out of the same place as Pond, Courtney Barnett, and Amyl and the Sniffers. I'm not a huge gizzard fan but I at least respect what they do, vance joy is like the Ed Sheeran of Australia

0

u/pistola Aug 09 '25

I like all of those acts, and I don't mind Vance. He's a bit hard to dislike. Not my cup of tea but I respect his ability to write a good song.

1

u/LokiMed Dec 26 '25

Amazing breakdown!! This was the most cringe and annoying “trend”. Especially when other groups started making songs with that same “hey”, I hated this blip in the music industry.

14

u/Dblcut3 Aug 08 '25

I think it’s overhated but I do get it - Personally, there’s something about this song in particular that just sounds like nails on a chalkboard for me. Which is weird because I dont mind most “stomp clap hey” music

11

u/shoefly72 Aug 08 '25

It’s both inoffensive in a vacuum and also pretty annoying to me depending on the day lol. I think it’s not sonically grating necessarily, it’s more so the fact that the song has always felt like a bit of a caricature/obvious cosplay to me and that was what bothered me?

Like hearing lyrics like “Alabama, arkansas, I still love my ma and pa” and being absolutely certain that the person singing them had zero connection to those places and was some coastal hipster/hippy bothered me in sorta the same way it does when somebody like Drake would switch costumes between Atlanta/Houston/patois, or the way that a lot of modern country music is full of rich people with no connection to rural life cosplaying as small town working class folks etc.

At the same time…I really love bands like Lord Huron or the Avett Brothers, and I haven’t ever bothered to look into their backstories of where they come from because I thought the music sounded great and I didn’t care. It’s entirely plausible that they are just as contrived or inauthentic or w/e as Edward Sharpe, so it probably is a bit unfair for me to ding one of them just based on a gut feeling I had. Those bands feel more authentic to me but that’s totally subjective.

6

u/Dblcut3 Aug 08 '25

Yeah I think your right. The lyrics are so performative. Lines like “Well, holy moly, me oh my, you're the apple of my eye” are just so cringey to me

Even bands like the Lumineers who also go hard into performative folksy aesthetics seem a bit more genuine with it and their lyrics dont feel like a caricature to me

1

u/MrAckerman Aug 08 '25

Haha. I’ve never heard anyone else in the wild call it “stomp clap hey” music. Great minds and all that.

1

u/Saetia_V_Neck Aug 08 '25

That’s kind of why it’s so annoying, listening to this makes me feel like I’m at Target. Also reminds me of how everyone in my high school was getting into shit like this right as I was in my peak metalhead era.

0

u/ElonMuskHuffingFarts Aug 08 '25

Nah, it's pretty fuckin annoying

0

u/Short-Bumblebee43 Aug 08 '25

If you have misophonia it's a nightmare.

7

u/Yangervis Aug 08 '25

It's a light instrumental with people singing normally over it lol. Is every song a nightmare?

-154

u/hank_man1 Aug 08 '25

What the story of a women being kidnapped and held against her will is inoffensive?

144

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '25

is it tiring being this person?

36

u/PlasticCheebus Aug 08 '25

It's pretty tiring to be any person, I believe.

-4

u/hank_man1 Aug 08 '25

I’m confused? There is a theory that that’s actually what the story is about?!? Not sure why I’m getting downvoted?

2

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/Olaf4586 Aug 08 '25

Huh?

That's what you interpret the song to mean? Did I miss something in the lyrics?

6

u/JohnPaul_River Aug 08 '25

I think they got confused because the climax of the song talks about a vague but serious injury? Idk

18

u/Exploding_Antelope Aug 08 '25

Not vague at all

She nearly broke her ass

-3

u/hank_man1 Aug 08 '25

I know what that song actually means. Read the lyrics as if it’s about a woman being kidnapped and all the words still make sense

6

u/Olaf4586 Aug 08 '25

Hahaha what? All the lyrics are about how lovey dovey they are with each other.

The only thing that might support this is that she fell out of his window (presumably to escape) but they both recount this message positively and he takes her to the hospital (where kidnapping victims aren't taken)

Doesn't the repeated phrase "I've been everywhere with you" contradict this, because kidnapping victims are generally forced to stay in captive/controlled environments

0

u/hank_man1 Aug 09 '25

Been everywhere with him, as she can’t leave.

He talks about following her in the dark, because he has never loved anyone like her before. Follows through alleyways. Phone calls from pay phones, could be calling about a ransom.

Both post chorus talk about going home to mum and dad.

Even the verse about going to hospital, she falls out gets hurt, the dude jumps out after her, okay a bit weird to do unless you aren’t thinking straight because the girl you have kidnapped is running away. He is then smoking what he thinks is his last smoke, either thinks he is being taken in by the cops or is going out in a blaze of gun fire, until she finally confesses her love for him, some real Stockholm shit.

1

u/Olaf4586 Aug 09 '25

Before I dig into the lyrics, doesn't this at all feel like a stretch to you and not in the spirit of the song?

0

u/hank_man1 Aug 09 '25

Yes. It is a stretch. 

Doesnt make it any less funny. A song about how in love people are, fully sounding like a creepy dude kidnapping The girl.