Until Tomorrow Then-The Best of Ed Harcourt - Ed Harcourt Album Review

Album Review

Writing the start of a review is always an absolute pain, but this one was a complete gift. Read on - it's not everyday you get such an easy intro, and I don't care if you stop reading after that, just read the first paragraph, okay?

So as I was extracting The best of Ed Harcourt to mp3 to listen on my iPod or equivalent on the train this morning, it was with some surprise that I checked my email to find one from Amazon stating that "as someone who has bought Tom McRae albums in the past, you may wish to pre order the best of Ed Harcourt." It's nice to know I'm in the right demographic (and even nicer to know I don't have to pay to find out), but at the same time it's been about 3 years since I listened to Tom McRae so it could be that Amazon have made a bad call. They managed it last week when they confused me buying a Tellytubbies DVD for my niece for a closet appreciation of Thomas the Tank Engine and the Tweenies.

And so it came to pass that I freed up space on my iPod or equivalent by removing last week's review - the aurally inaccessible delights of Shocking Pinks - for Ed Harcourt's best of. You could almost see the sense of betrayal in the mp3s' cold dead eyes - "What!? You're replacing us - acousticy singer songwriter magic with this mainstream tosh?" they seemed to say.

Actually, they didn't - they just meekly stood to one side and allowed a commercially successful artist to take their place.

So what of Ed's best of? Well on a first listen, not bad. Not mindblowingly good (aside from the opener Born in the 70s and powerful epic Watching the Sun Come Up which are truly terrific songs in my eyes/ears) but pleasant enough. Then it happened on my second listen - something changed which would forever taint my opinion of the album. Allow me to explain:

Like everyone in their darker moments (you can't deny it), I was tempted to write this review in rhyme. You know why I didn't? Because it would sound toss. Horribly though, Ed doesn't forsee this being a problem in his songs, with the first half of the album being a set of songs which have cringeworthy '12-year old poet' style lyrics with words fit together to rhyme rather than appeal. Take track 4, All Of Your Days Will Be Blessed, for example:

Pitchfork in my foot, I tried the best I could
Dragging all this wood, with a rusty old fishhook
To feed the fire and make our blood flow higher
But I'm a stubborn man, the sun needs my command
I'm gonna make a stand, condemned this twisted land
I'm sure you'd agree, but I can't leave you see

It doesn't look that bad when written down, but when combined with the plodding melody of the song it's just painful. This is followed on immediately by the equally uninspiring, drab chorus of track 5 - This One's For You. Those with a low threshold for insipid, lazy lyrics should look away now:

My oh my oh my I've had a few
My oh my oh my this one's for you

But I've saved the best (worst) for last. When you thought it couldn't get worse, out shuffles Shanghai:

Let's move away together, go interplanetary
Maybe in Chinese weather, where it's sanitary
I'll go out trawler fishing, yeah we'll have tuna steak
I'm on a special mission, for us to have a break

To be fair to Ed, the second half of the album doesn't have quite such predictable rhyming lyrics, but someone, somewhere took the ridiculous editorial decision to run the songs with predictable rhymescheme back to back and the damage was irreversible. All this has done is to provide me with more ammunition for the shotgun I reserve for shooting enormous fish in tiny barrels.

Another lesser complaint I can have about the album is that, despite it being impressively diverse with Harcourt darting between singalong indie anthems (Watching the Sun Come Up) and melancholy introversion (There's Something in my Eye) with aplomb, it's all rather evocative of other artists rather than ever sounding unique. The aforementioned 'singalong indie anthem' could be mistaken for In the Crossfire era Starsailor, while 9/10 cats would swear that You Put a Spell on Me was written by Embrace given a blind taste test. And the majority of the other tracks have the inescapable feeling I've heard them before, although irritatingly their seeming inspiration eludes me at the time of writing.

I feel I've been a bit harsh in this review, and the fact is this really isn't a bad album and has two wonderfully lovely songs which may make my future mixtapes (although tellingly I notice one of those was only co-written by Ed). The trouble is that a Best Of album should have more than a handful of great songs on it. Although I am unfamiliar with Ed Harcourt's albums I feel qualified in saying that Amazon have got my tastes wrong again, and if this is his current set of best songs, he should have waited a few years to have a more solid collection of tunes. And he should definitely have shuffled the track listing to ensure lyrical abominations #4 and #5 don't sit dejectedly next to one other.

Alan Martin