Michael Hann 

Edward Sharpe and the Magentic Zeroes: Up from Below

Many an album's faults are forgiven if it opens well, and this might turn out to be one, says Michael Hann
  
  


Many an album's faults are forgiven if it opens well, and this might turn out to be one. 40 Day Dream rolls in irresistibly, combining the Faces, Arcade Fire and Phil Spector in a marvellous, good-natured piece of what in the 80s was known as "the Big Music". It's the one that will have crowds cheering and singing along when they play live - but there's a risk those same crowds will be chatting away through the rest of the set. It's not that there's anything badly wrong with Up from Below - Jade has the pleasing sound of a late 60s psychedelic band imagining what "courtly" music might be like; Come In Please freewheels attractively; a debt to Love's Forever Changes is owed throughout. The Magnetic Zeroes are keen to present themselves as some sort of psychedelic cult, spreading joy wherever they go. They might recall that the Polyphonic Spree did something very similar - until the public cottoned on to the need for more and better songs. It's easy to imagine the Zeroes turning plenty of heads before a similar letdown follows.

 

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