Ed Harcourt : The Beautiful Lie

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/edharcourtthebeautifullie.jpg" alt=" " />After nearly two years, British phenom Ed Harcourt’s over-stuffed <em>The Beautiful Lie</em> gets its American release....
7.7 Dovecote
2008 

  The Sussex singer/songwriter has been turning heads in his native England for years now, most recently in 2006 with The Beautiful Lie.  But it’s only now that the record makes its way across the pond.  At fourteen tracks, Lie features maybe a few too many sides of the maturing artist, but one definitely comes away feeling they know who Ed Harcourt is.

The Beautiful Lie starts strong, with its first half probably its better side.  Opener “Whirlwind in D Minor” is an interesting sort of grand dance, with a touch of Spanish disco guitars.  But then Harcourt brightens his outlook with the soul-singing uplift “Visit From the Dead Dog” (reminiscent of the latest from another young British songmeister, Jamie Lidell’s JimQRO review) – perhaps the record would have been stronger with more of this, as it certainly leaves you wanting more.  In general, Lie is better when its further on the sunny side of things – the following “You Only Call Me When You’re Drunk” is a bit too slow in its piano-sad form, improving when it speeds up at the end.  Other top upbeat numbers include the carrying uplift anthem “Revolution In the Heart”, the charming honky-tonk old school “Scatterbraine”, and the dance-hall gypsy majesty “I Am the Drug”.  Other less interesting slow, sad songs include the slightly boring orchestra of “Late Night Partner”, the grand vox & strings “Rain on the Pretty Ones”, and the lo-fi, echo-without-oomph “Braille”.

However, when compared to Harcourt’s prior body of work, what’s most interesting is the amount of intimacy he delivers on this record, far more than on his last, 2004’s Strangers.  Top in this department is the up-close-and-oh-so-personal “The Last Cigarette”; his acoustic guitar storytelling is really first-rate.  While none of the other numbers in this vein quite match that early track, there are some other worthwhile expeditions into the heart, such as the following amp-distorted garage-meets-heartache “Shadowboxing”, the old-timey harpsichord-like recorded “Until Tomorrow Then”, the small-and-intimate – but catchy – “The Pristine Claw”, and the touching vocals, strings & piano finisher “Good Friends Are Hard To Find”.  But even with these, Harcourt maybe tried a few too many tricks – “Tomorrow” is more interesting than enjoyable, for instance, and “Friends” would have had more power were it not weighted down by its similarity to other, weaker, slow pieces.

When he embarked on The Beautiful Lie, Harcourt actually doubled back upon himself, returning to the eight-track and 1917 piano in his grandmother’s house in Sussex where he recorded his 2001 debut Maplewood EP (finishing Lie out at East London’s Toe Rag studios, where The White Stripes recorded Elephant).  Lie definitely has some of Maplewood’s spirit, but with intimate moments that are brand-new.  While Ed Harcourt might have tried to do a bit too much on The Beautiful Lie, it’s still a record well worthy of the States’ wait.

MP3 Stream: "Visit From the Dead Dog"

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– David Michael Huang
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