Can an artist be too talented for his own good? Multi-instrumentalist, multi-headed musical hydra, singer/song-summoner Ed Harcourt begs the question on his fourth studio effort, Strangers. From the opening guitar squelch that soars and cuts into the lead-off track, "The Storm Is Coming," it's apparent that Harcourt is in a creative rage. He layers piano, guitars, and keyboards all the while crooning and wailing. Similarly, "Let Love Not Weigh Me Down" builds weeping violin and smashing guitars on top of plinky piano as ...
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Can an artist be too talented for his own good? Multi-instrumentalist, multi-headed musical hydra, singer/song-summoner Ed Harcourt begs the question on his fourth studio effort, Strangers. From the opening guitar squelch that soars and cuts into the lead-off track, "The Storm Is Coming," it's apparent that Harcourt is in a creative rage. He layers piano, guitars, and keyboards all the while crooning and wailing. Similarly, "Let Love Not Weigh Me Down" builds weeping violin and smashing guitars on top of plinky piano as Harcourt cries on about how being in love is to affirm all that is positive about being alive. He even gets around to updating the Police's "Born in the Fifties" with "Born in the Seventies," a deceptively jaunty plea for older naysayers to give his generation a chance or get out of the way. The overall effect ends up sounding something like a reworking of "Under Pressure" featuring Ted Leo and Rufus Wainwright backed by the Flaming Lips. Needless to say, Harcourt's exploding arteries of emotion can get a bit tiring as he insists on building the volcano of tension track after track. However, just when you think it's about time to call "uncle," Harcourt lets go of your arm with tracks like "The Trapdoor," a Nick Drake-meets-Neil Young-style harvest moon of a song that sinks into your gut. Despite being a crack melodist with a knack for a catchy lyric and an iconoclast's taste for oddly disparate but somehow fitting musical influences that range from Chet Baker and Todd Rundgren to Sonic Youth and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Harcourt isn't a household name. Occupying the same deeply harmonic and beatifically sanguine post-Radiohead space in the music scene as similarly inclined cult figures Andrew Bird and Eric Matthews, Harcourt seems the most obvious graduate of the post-rock class to succeed in a Badly Drawn Boy-cum-Prince kind of way. So, why hasn't it happened yet? Maybe it's because Strangers finds Harcourt in the uncomfortably enviable position of being something along the lines of a thinking man's Chris Martin, which is to say, Strangers, Rovi
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Add this copy of Strangers to cart. $3.48, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Red rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Astralwerks.
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Add this copy of Church of Rhythm to cart. $5.50, like new condition, Sold by Streetlight_Records rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Cruz, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1995 by Reunion.
Add this copy of Strangers to cart. $5.84, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Ruby rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Astralwerks.
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Very good. Providing great media since 1972. All used discs are inspected and guaranteed. Cases may show some wear. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Strangers to cart. $8.99, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Emerald rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Astralwerks.
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Very good. Providing great media since 1972. All used discs are inspected and guaranteed. Cases may show some wear. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Strangers to cart. $10.00, good condition, Sold by Music Fiendz rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from South Hackensack, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Astralwerks.
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Add this copy of Church of Rhythm to cart. $29.99, new condition, Sold by insomniacsonline rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from South Hackensack, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1995 by Reunion.
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