“Desert Song” may be buried somewhere in the middle of Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros‘ latest LP, Up From Below, out as of last week on Community Music / Fairfax Records, but it’s the intro to their twelve-part, feature-length movie-musical. The song features an intro filmed by singer Alex Ebert’s mother and a chant by his father.

It almost seems fitting — the song is apparently about (according to the YouTube caption for the video) ” Alex’s reckoning with the middle name his father secretly wrote on his birth certificate – a Native American name which means ‘Devil’ or ‘Demon’.”

Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros play music that hints of higher authority. No, they don’t sing God songs and bow down to fundamental zealots; their music is more the community one things of when they hear the names Devendra Banhart or Akron/Family. Holy and cosmic, it’s more spiritual than anything else. And these elements shine forth in “Desert Song”.

In my opinion: this is one of the coolest videos of the year thus far.

Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros: 40 Day Dream [mp3]

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