Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes frontman denies ‘Home’ is the worst song ever made
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes singer Alex Ebert has defended their folk-rock song, ‘Home’, after it was brandished the worst song of all time on social media.
Earlier this week, a short clip of the band performing their hit 2009 track went viral on X and has racked up over 88 million views in a matter of days. The post, by user Justin Boldaji, is captioned, “Worst song ever made“.
Now, Ebert has shared a video on Instagram and fought the song’s corner, stating, “If the bones are good, if the bones let the song survive context, if you pull it out of acoustic guitar, you put a piano there and it works, it’s a good song. You pull it out of the piano, you put it on the harp, it’s still working, you take out of the harp, you sing it a capella, it’s still working, good song.”
Ebert then claimed his band “were the first to do the stomp and clap fuckin’ folk pop thing”, a short-lived cultural movement that spawned acts such as Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers and Of Monsters and Men that briefly became mainstream in the early 2010s.
He continued: “The Lumineers, they sought out one of our co-producers — he wasn’t actually our co-producer — and were like, ‘Hey, do that Edward Sharpe thing for us.’ For real, that’s a real story. Of Monsters & Men, they got our album before they ever made an album because our agent was their manager and she showed it to them and they basically got so close to ‘Home’ that we almost sued them.”
Ebert also said that friends congratulated him when Of Monsters and Men teamed up with Apple to produce music for an advert, stating, “That’s how closely people started doing this.”
The singer added, “And by the way, ‘Home’ isn’t a good recording, it’s just a good song. But it not being a good recording is what I love about “Home.” It’s like a moment. We recorded it on tape, we didn’t even know how to record on tape, it sounds like it’s made in some muffled garage. I wanted to spread the porous happenstance incidentalism of Edward Sharpe.”
Ebert concluded: “Instead what I spread was stomp claps taken and recorded better, and that’s depressing. But ‘Home’ is apparently a good song.”
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have been inactive since the Covid-19 pandemic, and last toured in 2019, performing at venues such as The Greek Theater in Los Angeles to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their debut album.
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