INDIO, CA - APRIL 17: Musician Alex Ebert of the band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros performs during day two of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2010 held at the Empire Polo Club on April 17, 2010 in Indio, California. (Photo by Karl Walter/Getty Images)
“Worst song ever made.” Eight days ago, a guy in Seattle named Justin Boldaji tweeted those words along with video of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros performing “Home” in an NPR Tiny Desk concert. In the footage, Jade Castrinos (hair cropped short, wearing a T-shirt, her shoulders emphatically swaying) is locked into a loving gaze with Alex Ebert, whose appearance (long-haired, bearded, shirtless under a white suit jacket) was recently summed up by journalist Jeremy Gordon with the phrase “Father John Misty as a cult leader.” Most days, I feel like this song’s charms outweigh its hokey affectations, but both “Home” and this specific performance are shamelessly earnest in a way that might strike you as and cloying.
