‘From Every Sphere’ by Ed Harcourt

Released in 2003, Ed Harcourt’s second album was a pretty obvious follow up to his first. There were no radical new directions on display, just a solid consolidation of the previous record. Sometimes, however, that’s all you need, and this record is a pleasure to listen to from start to… well, almost finish, but we’ll come to that.

The highlights, then, are packed slightly towards the beginning. ‘Bittersweetheart’ is a curiously understated opening, but lovely – an indrawn breath before the exhalation of ‘All Of Your Days Will Be Blessed’, the lead single (and, tragically, the only Ed Harcourt song ever to grace the top forty). ‘Ghost Writer’ changes tempo, though it’s impact is dulled by its similarity to ‘God Protects Your Soul’ from the previous album, a track that sounds similar but is much better. ‘The Birds Will Sing For Us’ puts things back on track. A sweet song until the ‘all die in the end’ ending, which is unexpected, but somehow works brilliantly. ‘Sister Renee’ is the sort of woozy piano ballad that Harcourt excels in. The middle section of the album dips a little – none of the tracks are bad, but they don’t hang around in your consciousness for two long. The final four tracks, however, are a structural problem. Each of them are good, and each would make a great ending song, but put together in a row, their impact is seriously blunted. ‘Watching The Sun Comes Up’ suffers the worst from this – it should be a climactic anthem, but by the time three more songs have played, its impact is lost. The fact that the title track, and actual last song, is seven and a half minutes long doesn’t help the situation either. It brings the album as a whole to fifty-six minutes, so cutting a track, or even two tracks, from the running order wouldn’t have hurt.

However, it seems harsh to quibble about this, and really, I’m nitpicking. The album is a good one.