Ed Harcourt, a classically-trained pianist, debuted with a home-made
six-song EP, Maplewood (Heavenly, 2000), that barely scratched the
surface of his repertory.
The songs, sandwiched between
an old-fashioned pop tune like Hanging With The Wrong Crowd
and a funereal trumpet-driven elegy like Whistle Of A Distant Train,
explore a vast stylistic territory, unafraid to mix and combine
incompatible genres:
I've Become Misguided straddles the unlikely border between
vintage banjo-driven musichall skits and distortion-drenched psych-rock;
Apple Of My Eye sits halfway between Kenny Rogers and a soul shouter;
and standout He's Building A Swamp blends
Mexican street band, martial country-western and a smoky Tom Waits.
And there's even a
somnolent nocturnal jazz ballad, Attaboy Go Spin A Yarn.
The album Here Be Monsters (Heavenly, 2001) delivered another eclectic
repertory, running the gamut from
the psych-pop litany Something In My Eye (Mercury Rev meets Sparklehorse)
to the Nick Cave-esque melodrama God Protect Your Soul
to the pounding orchestral David Bowie-esque Shanghai,
and
from the catchy piano-driven march-tempo pop ditty She Fell Into My Arms
to the gentle lullaby Birds Fly Backwards,
including a majestic version of Hanging With The Wrong Crowd and a bluesy version of Apple Of My Eye.
He is also capable of more complex scores, like the
impressionistic and oneiric lullaby Wind Through The Trees
and
the industrial-metal noise that detonates the otherwise folksy seven-minute Beneath The Heart Of Darkness.
His arranging skills are on display in songs like Like Only Lovers Can where his slow austere crooning is accompanied by a series of discrete instruments, from piano to violin to trumpet.
While not as original or profound as the debut, Harcourt's more ornate second album From Every Sphere (Heavenly, 2003) confirmed the young songwriter among the most promising talents of his generation.
A more calculated strategy yields the romantic pop of Bittersweetheart,
the Beatles-esque ditty All Of Your Days Will Be Blessed,
the jangling folk-rock of The Birds Will Sing For Us,
and the call-and-response serenade Metaphorically Yours.
However,
the anemic lament of Bleed A River Deep,
the orchestral elegy Sister Renee,
the simple madrigal of Fireflies Take Flight,
and the derivative Bowie-esque Watching The Sun Come Up
prove the limits, not the potential, of his method.
This generally bland effort is lifted by a touch of
Nine Inch Nails' industrial-metal in Ghost Writer and by the
eccentric piano and guitar arrangement of Undertaker Strut.
Strangers (Heavenly, 2004 - Astralwerks, 2005) is a disappointment.
While the general tone is mildly more upbeat,
only about two or three tunes are worthy of his canon
(The Storm Is Coming, This One's For You, Something To Live For).
It takes even more patience to go through the collection of
The Beautiful Lie (Heavenly, 2006). One or two of the songs
(notably Whirlwind In D Minor) is cute and effective, but most are
pure filler. If one adds all his albums together, Harcourt still hasn't
composed enough sonds to fill an album. Why release four of them?
Lustre (Piano Wolf, 2010) fails to dispel the fundamental ambiguity of
the man, who can be alternatively romantic (Haywired)
and playful (Do as I Say Not as I Do), swing from
the pensive Lachrymosity to the aggressive Lustre, and
pen the eccentric Heart of a Wolf as well as the delirious Church of No Religion; with little or no interest in stylistic innovation.
Back Into The Woods (2013) contains more of his bland but profound pop ballads, like
Murmur In My Heart, The Cusp & The Wane, and Wandering Eye.
The six-song EP Time Of Dust (2014) was his best collection in ten years.
Furnaces (2016), even better, benefited from
a gloomy and noisy production by Mark "Flood" Ellis.
Kakistocracy (2017) contains politicized instrumentals,
and
Beyond The End (2018) and
Monochrome To Colour (2020)
were collections of piano-based instrumentals, his new specialty.
He also scored film soundtracks.
Son Of Maplewood (2020),
Daughter Of Maplewood (2021)
and Grandson of Maplewood (2022) collect rarities.
El Magnifico (2024) contains Broken Keys, a duet with Greg Dulli.