Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros Singer Swears “Home” Is Not The “Worst Song Ever Written”

Current discourse, be damned: Alex Ebert, the lead singer and primary songwriter for the band Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, is certain that their song, “Home,” is absolutely not the worst song of all time.

Over the last few days, folks on the internet have been debating the merits (or lack thereof) embodied by the 2009 single, which arrived at the height of what’s come to be known as “Stomp Clap Hey” music from the late 2000s, and personified by such acts as The Lumineers, Of Monsters and Men, and Mumford and Sons.

Ebert has caught wind of the conversation and took to his Instagram account to answer the question and set the record straight: is “Home” a good song?

“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,” he says in the video, going on to not only defend the song, but to let it be known that his band was just ahead of the curve, and pretty much responsible for the “Stomp Clap Hey” sound. He calls out both Of Monsters and Men and The Lumineers for basically copying Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros to have hit records. In regards to Of Monsters and Men, he says, “They basically got so close to ‘Home’ that we almost sued them.”

Ultimately, he explains how playing the song for his 90-year-old father at a birthday part was when he was able to unequivocally say that yes, “Home” is absolutely not the worst song ever: “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 revealed. “I’ll try and find a recording of it, but 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.”

Ebert speaks for himself in the post below. Also revisit Ebert’s 2022 appearance on The Story Behind the Song, where he shared the story of how “Home” came to be.