'Here Be Monsters' by Ed Harcourt

Ed Harcourt’s first album (unless you count the shortened ‘Maplewood’, bought in the days when I listened to xfm and made a real effort to stay up to date. Harcourt came along at the wrong time, really – a few years on from the release of this album, the male singer-songwriter was very much in vogue, but his career never reached the heights of many less deserving artists.

‘Here Be Monsters’ is a very solid debut – relaxed, confident, and highly enjoyable, though not without its flaws. Harcourt is at his best when he’s having fun. ‘Hanging With The Wrong Crowd’, ‘Birds Fly Backwards’ and ‘Shanghai’ are testament to this. The crowning moments of the album are near the beginning. ‘God Protect Your Soul’ is wonderfully atmospheric with its rolling bass piano notes and murky trumpet lines, and it contrasts brilliantly with the more straightforward ‘She Fell Into My Arms’. These two tracks together are possibly the best he’s ever been.

The album suffers a little when Harcourt downplays the fun. ‘Beneath The Heart of Darkness’ suffers from a noisy and extended coda which lends more weight to the song than it deserves to carry, and ‘Wind Through The Trees’ becomes very skippable after the first couple of minutes – they’re the clearest sign of the album’s debut nature. Never-the-less, he can do the heartfelt stuff – the album closes with ‘Like Only Lovers Can’ which is fragile but very lovely. So considered as a whole, the album is a success, and a real springboard for a career that should have reached greater heights than it ever did.