This summer, skip: Ed Harcourt

Lustre (Piano Wolf)

By Gabrielle Moss
Published: July 3rd, 2010 | 1:00pm

British troubadour Ed Harcourt's profile is much higher in his home across the pond than in North America. Lustre, his fifth album of dramatic and romantic piano pop, is probably not going to do much to change that. Though Harcourt commands a strong and vibrant vocal range reminiscent at times of Rufus Wainwright or Jeff Buckley, and though every tune on the album reflects solid craftsmanship, too much of Lustre sounds like music you’ve heard before, possibly while on hold with your credit card company.

At its best, like on the sophisticated “Do As I Say Not As I Do” or the melancholy and orchestral “Haywired,” Lustre can be transporting, evoking a dreamy, long-ago summertime fling. At its worst, like on the bland “Church of No Religion,” Harcourt drops the innovation and goes for easy adult contemporary clichés, sounding close to a poor man’s David Gray. Unfortunately, much of the album falls into a muddy and unmemorable middle ground.

Harcourt has a reputation for experimentation, and it rears its head a few times on this album, particularly in the raucous backing chorus of female vocalists on the album’s strongest and strangest track, the Tin-Pan-Alley-meets-piano-rock stomp “Heart of a Wolf.” Such moments are few and far between, and no other songs stick out as truly striking or memorable. Lustre is a solid-enough piece of adult contemporary piano pop, but overall, it gives the listener few reasons to get caught in its web.

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