Ed Harcourt | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Known for his literate, Baroque rock sound, Britains Ed Harcourt is a distinctively enigmatic presence known for his solo work and contributions for other artists. Arriving in the early 2000s, Harcourt gained praise for his dark-toned anthems that touched upon post-punk guitar rock, orchestral pop, and minimalist balladry. Often compared to his idol Tom Waits, the pianist/vocalist gained early respect, picking up a Mercury Prize-nomination for his 2001 debut Here Be Monsters. Other albums, like 2004s Strangers (featuring the single "Born in the 70s") and 2010s Lustre, showcased his atmospheric sound, and helped to solidify his reputation as a cult favorite. Along with his own albums, he has found himself an in-demand studio player, having collaborated on projects with such varied artists as Paloma Faith, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and Marianne Faithfull. Born Edward Henry Richard Harcourt-Smith in 1977, in Wimbledon, London, England, Harcourt grew up the son of Charles Harcourt-Smith, a Major in the British Army Life Guards, and Sabrina Harcourt-Smith, an art historian. Although he initially started taking piano lessons around age nine, he eventually rejected formal tutoring in favor of discovering music on his own terms. By his teens, he had collected an array of influences, including Tom Waits, Jeff Buckley, Chet Baker, Nick Cave, and Hoagy Carmichael, to name a few. While still in school, he co-founded the indie rock outfit Snug, recording two albums including 1999s Snug, before the band broke up. After the demise of Snug, Harcourt worked days as a chef while continuing to write songs. He debuted his solo music with the 2000 EP Maplewood, an atmospherically lo-fi production recorded at his grandmothers rural Sussex home of Wootton Manor. Initially intended as a demo, the album gained release after Harcourt signed with Heavenly Recordings, then a subsidiary of EMI. In 2001, he issued his proper full-length debut, Here Be Monsters, produced by Death in Vegas Tim Holmes, and showcasing a more fully realized studio sound. The album cracked the Top 100 of the U.K. charts and earned a Mercury Prize nomination. A year later, he returned with the Tchad Blake-produced From Every Sphere, which hit number 39 in the U.K. Following a tour with Wilco and R.E.M., Harcourt issued his third studio album, Strangers, in 2004. Co-produced with Jari Haapalainen and Hadrian Garrard, the album peaked at number 57 in the U.K. (and reached number seven in Sweden). It also garnered more airplay in the States, and spawned the singles "Born in the 70s," "This Ones for You," and "Loneliness." He then appeared live at the 2005 Meltdown Festival in London, during which he also performed with curator and longtime influence Patti Smith. His fourth album, The Beautiful Lie, arrived in June 2006, and again featured co-production with Haapalainen. Also featured were contributions by members of the Magic Numbers, Blurs Graham Coxon, and Harcourts wife violinist and singer Gita Harcourt. A greatest-hits compilation, Until Tomorrow Then: The Best of Ed Harcourt, followed in 2007, closing out Harcourts contract with EMI. Included were key tracks from his Heavenly/EMI albums as well the newly-penned track entitled "You Put a Spell on Me." By the end of the decade, Harcourt had signed with New York Citys Dovecote Records and released the 2009 digital EP Russian Roulette. The label also helped broaden his profile in the States, reissuing The Beautiful Lie. Harcourt also began to branch out during this period, composing the music for the soundtrack to the Donnie Darko sequel S. Darko, and contributing the track "Isabel" to the SOS Childrens Villages Emergency Relief Fund in Haiti. He also collaborated on tracks with other artists including Paloma Faith, Lissie, and Kristina Train. In 2010, he returned with his fifth studio-album, the Ryan Hadlock-produced Lustre. The first album issued on his own Piano Wolf Recordings, it found him ruminating on themes of parenthood, fidelity, and financial woes. It reached number 12 on the U.K. Indie charts. Over the next several years, Harcourt continued to expand his work with other performers, working on music with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Faith, and Lisa Marie Presley, among others. He finally returned to his solo work with 2013s Back Into the Woods. Consisting of songs he wrote over a month-long hiatus, the album was a spare, largely acoustic affair, recorded in a one-day session with producer Pete Hutchings at the Abbey Road Studios. The EP, Time of Dust, arrived the following year. Harcourt continued to find himself in-demand as a collaborator over the next few years, working on projects with Ellis-Bextor, James Bay, and Happyness. In 2016, he released his seventh studio album, the Flood-produced Furnaces. He then contributed to Paloma Faiths The Architect, and Norma Jean Martines Only in My Mind, before issuing his own Beyond the End in 2018. Also that year, he appeared alongside the Dirty Threes Warren Ellis on Marianne Faithfulls Negative Capability. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 14 Title: Maplewood Released: 2000-11-13 Tracks: 6 Duration: 21:58 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Hanging With the Wrong Crowd (03:34) 2 Ive Become Misguided (04:10) 3 Apple of My Eve (03:08) 4 Attaboy Go Spin a Yarn (04:05) 5 Hes Building a Swamp (03:19) 6 Whistle of a Distant Train (03:39) |
 | Album: 2 of 14 Title: Here Be Monsters Released: 2001-06-25 Tracks: 11 Duration: 52:22 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Something in My Eye (03:43) 2 God Protect Your Soul (05:25) 3 She Fell Into My Arms (03:50) 4 Those Crimson Tears (05:11) 5 Hanging With the Wrong Crowd (03:43) 6 Apple of My Eye (04:01) 7 Beneath the Heart of Darkness (07:21) 8 Wind Through the Trees (06:47) 9 Birds Fly Backwards (03:32) 10 Shanghai (03:51) 11 Like Only Lovers Can (04:54) |
| Here Be Monsters : Allmusic album Review : Ed Harcourt certainly has a grasp of atmospherics, and hes steeped -- some would say marinated -- in his influences. There are some really marvelous tracks on Here Be Monsters, the songwriters debut album. "Something in My Eye," which is lush with trumpet and strings, has an evocative tune and a vocal in a languid stupor, while "Beneath the Heart of Darkness" sports a great lead-in and such witty, ear catching lyrics as "spluttering like an army of artillery sporadically firing." The ending veers into the experimental, with a hurricane of noisy static before a calm resolution. "Wind Through the Trees," sounds like the forlorn hand of Erik Satie skittering its way across a piano, with the dreamy refrain "You cant run from me/cos Im the wind through the trees." Beautiful. Other tracks warranting further ear time are "These Crimson Tears," with its cello and muted trumpet wafting after-hours from some jazz club alleyway, and "Apple of My Eye," which has a mock Motown/spiritual vibe, with handclaps and a much beefier vocal than the one featured on the earlier Maplewood EP. What remains is less noteworthy, and the penultimate track, "Shanghai," comes with an awful, possibly ironic guitar break, and sounds like a Buggles reject. Its a baffling puzzler given what preceded it, making one wonder about the artists allegedly vast back catalog and his possibly tenous hold on quality control. This artist contains multitudes, though, and it looks like the gifted ones are in the ascendant. Follow his upward trajectory. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 14 Title: Watching the Sun Come Up (Australian Tour EP) Released: 2003 Tracks: 5 Duration: 20:21 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Watching the Sun Come Up (04:21) 2 All of Your Days Will Be Blessed (03:44) 3 Still I Dream of It (05:22) 4 Paid to Get Drunk (03:44) 5 Sugarbomb (03:09) |
 | Album: 4 of 14 Title: From Every Sphere Released: 2003-02-17 Tracks: 12 Duration: 56:52 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Bittersweetheart (04:31) 2 All of Your Days Will Be Blessed (03:42) 3 Ghost Writer (04:18) 4 The Birds Will Sing for Us (04:26) 5 Sister Renee (04:44) 6 Undertaker Strut (03:41) 7 Bleed a River Deep (04:48) 8 Jetsetter (03:56) 9 Watching the Sun Come Up (05:45) 10 Fireflies Take Flight (04:38) 11 Metaphorically Yours (04:46) 12 From Every Sphere (07:35) |
| From Every Sphere : Allmusic album Review : On his stylish and refined sophomore album From Every Sphere, Ed Harcourt waives the murky soundscapes that overshadowed his 2001 Mercury Music Prize-nominated album Here Be Monsters, for a stripped-down, intimate effort. Instead of fighting adolescences last days and ignoring adulthood like he did on his first album, Harcourt embraces the fact that hes growing up. Only 25, hes a touch wiser and enjoys his newfound confidence as an individual and as an artist. From Every Sphere, which was initially planned to be a conceptual double album entitled The Ghost Parade, is heavy in spirit while Harcourt relishes in his personal and professional growth. The Bono-like inflections and the quasi-Nick Cave growl are relieved by an inquisitive croon and Tchad Blakes basic approach from the production seat gives From Every Sphere the time and space to simply arrive. The swanky power pop number "Watching the Sun Come Up" is soaking in space rock threads and a polished brass section, while pianos slowly take shape in the beautiful paranoia of "The Birds Will Sing for Us" and the heart-rending "Bleed a River Deep." When "Ghostwriter" saunters in with its sexy wannabe Tom Waits impression and jazzy abstracts, From Every Sphere doesnt lose ground. Harcourt experiments in more ways than one on this album, never overindulgent in the process. He works with what he knows from personal experience without being redundant and in todays business you have to have beaucoup talent to pull that off. From Every Sphere affirms Ed Harcourts potential. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 14 Title: Strangers Released: 2004 Tracks: 12 Duration: 46:52 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 The Storm Is Coming (04:51) 2 Born in the 70s (03:15) 3 This Ones for You (04:47) 4 Strangers (03:30) 5 Let Love Not Weigh Me Down (04:19) 6 Something to Live For (02:32) 7 The Trapdoor (04:49) 8 The Music Box (03:26) 9 Loneliness (02:53) 10 Open Book (04:39) 11 Kids (Rise From the Ashes) (04:31) 12 Black Dress (03:17) |
| Strangers : Allmusic album Review : Can an artist be too talented for his own good? Multi-instrumentalist, multi-headed musical hydra, singer/song-summoner Ed Harcourt begs the question on his fourth studio effort, Strangers. From the opening guitar squelch that soars and cuts into the lead-off track, "The Storm Is Coming," its apparent that Harcourt is on a creative rage. He layers piano, guitars, and keyboards all the while crooning and wailing. Similarly, "Let Love Not Weigh Me Down" builds weeping violin and smashing guitars on top of plinky piano as Harcourt cries on about how being in love is to affirm all that is positive about being alive. He even gets around to updating the Polices "Born in the Fifties" with "Born in the 70s," a deceptively jaunty plea for older naysayers to give his generation a chance or get out of the way. The overall effect ends up sounding something like a reworking of "Under Pressure" featuring Ted Leo and Rufus Wainwright backed by the Flaming Lips. Needless to say, Harcourts exploding arteries of emotion can get a bit tiring as he insists on building the volcano of tension track after track. However, just when you think its about time to call "uncle," Harcourt lets go of your arm with tracks like "The Trapdoor," a Nick Drake meets Neil Young-style harvest moon of a song that sinks into your gut. Despite being a crack melodicist with a knack for a catchy lyric and an iconoclasts taste for oddly disparate but somehow fitting musical influences that range from Chet Baker and Todd Rundgren to Sonic Youth and Screamin Jay Hawkins, Harcourt isnt a household name. Occupying the same deeply harmonic and beatifically sanguine post-Radiohead space in the music scene as similarly inclined cult figures Andrew Bird and Eric Matthews, Harcourt seems the most obvious graduate of the post-rock class to succeed in a Badly Drawn Boy cum Prince kind of way. So, why hasnt it happened yet? Maybe its because Strangers finds Harcourt in the uncomfortably enviable position of being something along the lines of a thinking mans Chris Martin, which is to say, Strangers is a devastatingly accomplished album. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 14 Title: Elephants Graveyard Released: 2005-08-08 Tracks: 28 Duration: 1:59:05 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 The Unlucky One (04:41) 2 T Bone Tombstone (03:12) 3 Here Be Monsters (04:37) 4 Ive Become Misguided (05:35) 5 When Americans Come to London (05:01) 6 Alligator Boy (05:26) 7 Weary and Bleary Eyed (05:26) 8 Last of the Troubadors (04:19) 9 Little Silver Bullet (03:03) 10 Sleepyhead (03:51) 11 Coal Black Heart (04:51) 12 Blackwoods Back Home (05:07) 13 Still Dream of It (05:22) 14 The Ghost Parade (05:30) 15 Angels on Your Body (04:09) 16 The Hammer and the Nail (05:13) 17 She Put a Curse on Me (Parts I & II) (06:03) 18 Iceman Cometh (04:24) 19 Asleep at the Helm (03:47) 20 Sugarbomb (03:06) 21 Paid to Get Drunk (03:41) 22 Atlantic City (03:47) 23 Deathsexmarch (01:16) 24 Mysteriously (03:31) 25 Only Happy When Youre High (04:19) 26 Breathe a Little Softer (04:55) 27 Every Night (02:49) 28 Epitaph (02:04) |
 | Album: 7 of 14 Title: The Beautiful Lie Released: 2006-06-05 Tracks: 14 Duration: 54:48 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Whirlwind in D Minor (03:58) 2 Visit From the Dead Dog (03:03) 3 You Only Call Me When Youre Drunk (04:29) 4 The Last Cigarette (03:30) 5 Shadowboxing (03:22) 6 Late Night Partner (04:40) 7 Revolution in the Heart (04:20) 8 Until Tomorrow Then (03:56) 9 Scatterbraine (02:46) 10 Rain on the Pretty Ones (04:17) 11 The Pristine Claw (03:18) 12 I Am the Drug (03:35) 13 Braille (05:33) 14 Good Friends Are Hard to Find (03:54) |
| The Beautiful Lie : Allmusic album Review : Ed Harcourts accomplished fifth album Beautiful Lie is easily one of his most accessible and listenable efforts. Yes, the hallmarks of his tortured singer/songwriter status are still in place, as flagrant strings, grandiose arrangements, and rampant-but-quality peer-mimicry rule these 14 tracks. But even though his lyrics are sometimes overbearingly dark and too many vampire metaphors abound, the music and songwriting compare favorably to contemporary indie-centric, raspy-voiced artists like Beck, the Eels, Sparklehorse, and Tom Waits. Harcourt dabbles in many genres here, from acoustic folk to 70s style pop ballads to rootsy psychedelia to experimental lounge, all the while rooting the musics emotion in melodic piano. When he rocks out full-force on "Revolution in My Heart" and the carnival-esque "Scatterbrain," the fuzzy dynamics recall the Walkmen at their best. Those two tracks bookend the Mark Linkous-like "Until Tomorrow Then" which marries blues-styled singing with grainy, haunted samples suggestive of a gramophone. Harcourts mastery of so many styles and his multi-instrumentalist talents might be whats made him a niche artist up to Beautiful Lies release. With so much going on stylistically, it can be hard to grasp his albums as cohesive entities. Its a shame, but because of Harcourts eclecticism, its hard to pin him down as having a distinct sound. Hes almost too talented. But Beautiful Lie is an invigorating and frequently gorgeous affair, essential for old fans and a good place to start for newcomers. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 14 Title: Until Tomorrow Then (The Best Of...) Released: 2007-10-15 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:00:51 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Born in the 70s (03:15) 2 She Fell Into My Arms (03:47) 3 Black Dress (03:17) 4 All of Your Days Will Be Blessed (03:43) 5 This Ones for You (04:47) 6 Apple of My Eye (03:08) 7 Visit From the Dead Dog (03:02) 8 Something in My Eye (03:40) 9 Watching the Sun Come Up (05:44) 10 Loneliness (02:51) 11 Fireflies Take Flight (04:38) 12 Shanghai (03:54) 13 Shadowboxing (03:20) 14 Whistle of a Distant Train (03:36) 15 Until Tomorrow Then (03:55) 16 You Put a Spell on Me (04:14) |
 | Album: 9 of 14 Title: Russian Roulette Released: 2009-05-05 Tracks: 6 Duration: 26:22 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Russian Roulette (05:43) 2 Sour Milk, Motheaten Silk (03:57) 3 Black Feathers (03:31) 4 Caterpillar (04:10) 5 Creep Out of the Woodwork (04:08) 6 Girl With the One Track Mind (04:53) |
 | Album: 10 of 14 Title: Lustre Released: 2010-06-14 Tracks: 7 Duration: 24:31 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Illustrious (instrumental) (02:51) 2 Words of Prey (03:17) 3 Pistols at Dawn (02:54) 4 A Public Sobriety (instrumental) (04:01) 5 Heart of a Wolf (instrumental) (04:16) 6 A Very Good Impression of Myself (03:16) 7 Snow Youve Been Cold (instrumental) (03:52) |
| Lustre : Allmusic album Review : Ed Harcourts 2010 album Lustre is a sweepingly romantic, epic, and sparkling collection of tunes that finds the British singer/songwriter ruminating on true love, money issues, and parenthood in a way that only a man who has found his place in the world can. Always a brooding type, Harcourt certainly clocks some serious vampire time here -- theres even a song titled "Killed by the Morning Sun" -- but there is a bright-eyed optimism to these songs that lifts them from the shadows. From the title track on, it is clear that Harcourt is less concerned about his own sad-sack misery and more about the redemptive qualities in his lovers eyes. He sings "Lustre when your worries are lonely/Lustre on the sweat of your lip/But lustre never shines in the final scene when sticking to the script/And I see lustre in your eyes." A similar sentiment is voiced in the grandly romantic "Haywired," where Harcourt explicitly details how his wife saved his life. He sings "The self-destructive dont believe that theres a crisis they can leave and then I married you." Then, at the three-minute mark, Harcourt, backed by thumping drums, shimmering piano, and little analog keyboard swells, delivers the albums clearest imperative: "Its not easy to be happy, get away with it." The song, much like the rest of Lustre, is aching and triumphant all at the same time. Throw in such driving and blinding melodic pop moments as "Do as I Say Not as I Do," where "trees are bending over to make room for the moon" and where Harcourt apologizes "to all the people that I might have offended it wasn’t that intended/I hope we can amend it," and Lustre takes on a kind of cinematic joy where Harcourt the long-suffering vampiric troubadour steps into the light and shines. | ||
 | Album: 11 of 14 Title: Back Into the Woods Released: 2013-01-09 Tracks: 9 Duration: 36:20 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Cusp & The Wane (02:39) 2 Hey Little Bruiser (04:19) 3 Wandering Eye (04:32) 4 Murmur In My Heart (04:42) 5 Back Into The Woods (04:26) 6 Brothers And Sisters (03:34) 7 The Pretty Girls (03:02) 8 Last Will and Testament (04:46) 9 The Man That Time Forgot (04:17) |
 | Album: 12 of 14 Title: Time of Dust Released: 2014-01-20 Tracks: 6 Duration: 28:17 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Come Into My Dreamland (04:35) 2 In My Time of Dust (04:09) 3 The Saddest Orchestra (It Only Plays for You) (04:34) 4 We All Went Down With the Ship (04:27) 5 Parliament of Rooks (05:25) 6 Love Is a Minor Key (05:04) |
 | Album: 13 of 14 Title: Furnaces Released: 2016-08-19 Tracks: 12 Duration: 52:50 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Intro (01:42) 2 The World Is On Fire (06:00) 3 Loup Garou (04:52) 4 Furnaces (03:53) 5 Occupational Hazard (04:28) 6 Nothing But a Bad Trip (04:20) 7 You Give Me More Than Love (05:38) 8 Dionysus (04:21) 9 There Is a Light Below (02:49) 10 Last of Your Kind (04:55) 11 Immoral (05:11) 12 Antarctica (04:35) |
| Furnaces : Allmusic album Review : The seventh studio album from Britains Ed Harcourt, 2016s Furnaces, finds the dark-tinged singer/songwriter balancing the orchestral majesty of 2010s Lustre with the ruminative simplicity of 2013s Back into the Woods. With Lustre, Harcourt reached a creative apex, crafting an album of sweeping, vampiric splendor that found him at one with his life as a husband, father, and poetic journeyman. In contrast, Back into the Woods was a stripped-down affair, recorded in a single day and subjected to a protracted search for a label home. Produced by acclaimed British producer Flood (PJ Harvey, U2, Nine Inch Nails), Furnaces is a much more robust, though no less soul-searching, production than Back into the Woods, and showcases Harcourts longstanding knack for crafting bold, baroque rock anthems centered around his yearning baritone vocals, classical-inflected piano, and bluesy guitar. Perhaps not surprisingly, the album brings to mind the similarly inclined work of such luminaries as Nick Cave and the Wolfgang Press, both of whom collaborated with Flood on albums in the 80s and 90s. Harcourt has always evinced a debt to such alt-rock icons, and his choice to pair with Flood on Furnaces is a serendipitous one. And while standout cuts like the driving "Loup Garou" and the fractured, electronica-tinged "You Give Me More Than Love" wouldnt sound out of place on a 90s Garbage album, the album never feels too retro. Tracks like the yearning "The World Is on Fire" and the jazzy, gospel-inflected "There Is a Light Below" are swooning, gorgeously arranged productions full of echoey vocal harmonies, fuzz-tone guitars, exotic percussion accents, and other evocative production touches. Elsewhere, Harcourt achieves a pyrrhic majesty drawing upon the noir-ish style of Portishead with the epically romantic "Last of Your Kind" and the gothy loverman ballad "Immoral." Similarly, the loping "Occupational Hazard" and the militaristically epic "Dionysus" have a kinetic flow that is, as with all of Furnaces, both literate and cinematic. | ||
 | Album: 14 of 14 Title: Beyond the End Released: 2018-11-23 Tracks: 12 Duration: 40:16 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Diving Bell (04:40) 2 Wolves Change Rivers (03:49) 3 Duet for Ghosts (03:41) 4 Empress of the Lake (03:37) 5 Keep Us Safe (04:00) 6 Faded Photographs (01:55) 7 For My Father (03:10) 8 For My Mother (02:39) 9 Beneath the Brine (03:18) 10 There Is Still a Fire (02:59) 11 Circling Red Kites (02:47) 12 Whiskey Held My Sleep to Ransom (03:36) |