Ed Harcourt: Here Be Monsters : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Locking himself in his grandmother's house in the English countryside for nearly three years, Ed Harcourt finally emerged last year with 300 original compositions. Sadly, only eleven make it onto his full-length debut, Here Be Monsters, an innovative and unsettling twist on the quiet-is-the-new-loud movement. "Something in My Eye" and "God Protect Your Soul" stake out the musical territory from the start, infusing minor-key piano melodies with stark rhythms and a distinctly stormy atmosphere. From there, things veer into chaotic barroom numbers like "She Fell Into My Arms" and "Apple of My Eye," replete with rolling rhythms and choppy horns, to oddly atmospheric experiments such as "Hanging With the Wrong Crowd" and "Birds Fly Backwards." But Harcourt never loses focus, keeping staggering melodies and stylistic radiance at the forefront. The more intense things get, the better: "Beneath the Heart of Darkness" is a muted epic that dissolves into sheer white noise midway through, only to be pulled out by the truly creepy ballad "Wind Through the Trees." We can't wait to hear the outtakes.

AIDIN VAZIRI
(March 26, 2002)