The internet has a new villain, and apparently, it’s a 2009 Tiny Desk performance.
This week, a clip of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros playing their breakout hit “Home” has been circulating on social media, prompting a heated (and slightly absurd) debate over whether it might be the “worst song of all time.”
Alex Ebert, the band’s lead singer and songwriter, would like to make one thing very clear: absolutely not.
In a video posted to Instagram, Ebert pushed back on the discourse and defended the track — the same one that became an anthem of the late-2000s “Stomp Clap Hey” era alongside The Lumineers, Of Monsters and Men, and Mumford & Sons. According to Ebert, not only does “Home” hold up, but his band practically invented the genre those other acts rode to mainstream fame.
“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,” Ebert said, adding that Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros were “ahead of the curve” on the whole Stomp Clap Hey movement.
He even claimed Of Monsters and Men got so close to “Home” that the band nearly sued.
His ultimate proof came in the form of an impromptu performance for his 90-year-old father at a birthday party.
“There was a piano in the restaurant so I just played it like that, whole chords, just me at the piano in a restaurant at noon,” Ebert recalled. “It turned into just about my favorite version of the song. In fact, I keep thinking maybe I should release a version of it. Anyway, that’s when I made up my mind that ‘Home,’ the bones of it at least, are great. It’s a good song.”
So while X may be eager to roast “Home” into oblivion, Ebert’s not backing down. In his view, the song isn’t just good — it helped define an entire era. Love it or loathe it, “Home” clearly isn’t going anywhere.
