Ed Harcourt - The Beautiful Lie

Life's not fair from time to time in a country where the singer/songwriter hasn't been bigger for decades and bland characters like David Gray and James Blunt rule the charts, the most talented and absorbing of them all hardly even earn B-list airplay. Ed Harcourt's three preceding LPs all came close to Hall of Fame standard so it's slightly saddening to find 'The Beautiful Lie' as his weakest effort to date. Just like his debut EP 'Maplewood', the foundations of 'The Beautiful Lie' were recorded on an eight-track in his grandmother's house in Sussex. Moments like The Last Cigarette and Rain On the Pretty Ones do however serve to remind why Ed is worthy of being considered as one of this generation's finer songwriters. As a whole though 'The Beautiful Lie' doesn't quite climb up to the impressive heights he is capable of reaching but it still stands above the majority of his genre's brethren. [Chris Nordeng]