Dazzling melodies, a handful of pop gems.
jimmy | Los Angeles,CA | 11/23/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"What does "The Best of " mean in the current music industry?
Isn't that one of those things that people release in the twilight of their careers? One of those feeble last-ditch attempts from the record company to milk a few more bucks out of your pocket before they spectacularly drop the artist?
In some cases, yes, but Ed Harcourt's "Until Tomorrow Then\" is what a "best of" should be - a joyful romp through a mighty back catalogue with just a sprinkling of new songs to whet your appetite for what is still to come.
It is a curious paradox that it's almost impossible to do any artist worthy of a "Greatest Hits" collection proper justice within the time constraint of a single CD.
And so it is with songwriter extraordinaire Ed Harcourt.
Over the course of his five albums, critics have compared Ed Harcourt to the likes of Tom Waits, Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, Badly Drawn Boy and Rufus Wainwright, but what this retrospective collection reveals is an entirely unique voice with an emotional range and musical flair that is all his own.
Great Britain gets it very, very, wrong with singer-songwriters.
Some pretty boring strummers like James Morrison, the grand high wizard himself James Blunt, and others are free to roam the streets, peddling their wares to millions. Yet those who don't fit that template, one which can be traced all the way back to James Taylor and Jackson Browne, seem unable to gain the same commercial success, despite the fact that their music is almost always, by very definition, far superior.
With four full-length albums and a mini under his belt, he has material enough from which to fashion a career summary. So here we are with "Until Tomorrow Then (The Best of...)".
But which songs to include?
What we are left with is a selection of highlights from a discography whose merit is yet to meet with the success it warrants. Since a Mercury Prize nomination for his Here Be Monsters album, Harcourt's stock has fallen.
A sensitive, heart-on-sleeve character, Harcourt has written some of the most affecting music of the decade.
"This One's for You" is a dream of song, marrying his most tender lyric to the finest melody McCartney never wrote.
The delicate "Something in My Eye'" still dazzles years after its original release and the near disco groove of "Visit from the Dead Dog" are also marked highlights
Elsewhere, biography abounds. Listening to piano lament "Apple of My Eye" --taken from 2000's debut mini-album "Maplewood" -- is like leafing through Ed's private diary, whilst the pop gem "Born in the `70s" describes his formative years.
Behind the balladeer's façade, there lurks a wannabe rock god, indulged through metal side project "Wild Boar" and here only sparsely represented, most notably on the raucous coda to "Shanghai".
For the most part, though, Harcourt specialises in piano-led pop, best illustrated by a trio of recent singles: the oddly life-affirming "Loneliness", "Visit from the Dead Dog" -- from his most recently acclaimed release, 2006's Beautiful Lie -- and the new track "You Put A Spell On Me".
As said before, the collection includes also are two previously unreleased tracks, as the newly-minted "You Put A Spell On Me", a love letter in song form : it's a sumptuous minor-key masterpiece already destined to go down as one of his finest compositions.
Ed himself notes it was no easy task selecting 16 tracks from the 100 or so songs he's recorded and released to date - particularly as even that number represents only a fraction of those he's written.
All in all, this album is a worthy intro to an artist whose back catalogue demands thorough investigation.
All the Lost Souls
Undiscovered
Greatest Hits
Release the Stars"
Outstanding compilation - one glaring flaw.
Leif Sheppard | United States | 09/07/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"For newcomers or longtime fans alike, I feel this compilation is a strongly sequenced and well selected double disc set of Harcourt's best work. "Shanghai", "Black Dress", "She Fell Into My Arms", "Loneliness", and "Visit from the Dead Dog" are among the standouts in this set.
Naturally, as with most "Greatest Hits" compilations, there are bound to be a few missteps in selecting the material - even though Harcourt himself only has five albums under his belt.
Were I selecting the tracklist there are a handful of switches I would have made - but I won't get into the specifics because that sort of thing is largely subjective - all depending on individual taste alone.
The one major flaw this compilation has is that it completely ignores "Revolution in the Heart" - which is unquestionably one of the finest songs Harcourt has crafted yet. I highly suggest that if you purchase this album - make certain to download "Revolution in the Heart" from Harcourt's last album Beautiful Lie."
Track Listings (16) - Disc #1