Ed Harcourt – Lustre
Intelligent song writing at its very best.
Lustre is Ed Harcourt’s fifth studio album, but his first new release in four years. Upon listening to the album, it’s very easy to see how the album could have taken such a long time to create. Lustre is not so much an album as it is an achievement and an event. Each track seems to have been pedantically re-worked to absolute perfection and, unlike many albums, nothing is out of place and there are no tracks which force you to poke involuntarily at the skip button.
It seems that his brief sabbatical from musical prying eyes and becoming a father have cleansed Harcourt of that gritty bitterness which often pervaded his previous works, leaving us with an open, honest and beautifully reflective album which must undoubtedly be his greatest work to date.
With Lustre, Harcourt follows in the footsteps of giants like Leonard Cohen. He has thought long and hard about each aspect of the song writing process and turns out thought-provoking lyrics to live in perfect matrimony with his soulful melodies. In this way, Harcourt has moved away from the vein of being a simple performer. Here, he is as much an author and social critic as he is a musician.
Tracks like Church Of No Religion are a perfect example of this. Harcourt uses an almost painfully upbeat and catchy melody to discuss a dark and current subject matter, and make some very brave statements about the state of the Catholic Church by using Catholic imagery and turning it on its head. Harcourt has made the giant leap into the world of art here. He doesn’t simply churn out lyrics to match a melody. This is intelligent song writing at its very best.
Nothing is over-explained or transparent with this album. The intelligence of his listeners is valued and when, in the opening track, Lustre, he sings of the beautiful glow of lustre, juxtaposed with death and darkness, it is left to the listener to decide what they think he is referring to. In opening with the sound of an almost angelic choir, Lustre opens the album on the note of irony which follows through each song. Harcourt often takes a leaf out of Elvis Costello’s songbook of irony, as he uses catchy and upbeat melodies in contrast with dark and brooding subject matter.
Heart Of A Wolf is the edgiest track on the album and, with its infectious melody it harkens back to Harcourt’s previous works. Desperation is the abiding emotion running through each track, but there always seems to be a sense of hope. Luckily, we aren’t forced to press eject due to depression, we press replay in hope, and it is always rewarded. The quality of each song is astounding and marks Harcourt out as a ‘stand-alone’ performer, he doesn’t need bells and whistles, his music can stand unaided.
No two tracks sound the same and yet they stand connected and not disjointed. Harcourt has created his own genre here so that from the dizzying Haywired to the theatrical Rufus Wainwright-esque Lachrymosity, each song is uniquely him. It becomes an album which Oscar Wilde would probably be delighted to be name-checked in.
After a ridiculous amount of listens in various states of recline around my house I eventually came to a conclusion as to what defines this album. It is a soundtrack to life in 2010, to the point where it should be popped into a time capsule for future generations. Although, we would hope that a Harcourt-like ironic twist of fate won’t happen and the world won’t descend into alien madness after the capsule is opened a-la Nic Cage in Knowing.
It’s undoubtedly refreshing to hear an album by an artist so passionate about song writing as an art form and, as Harcourt himself has said, despite bleak subject matters, the album is almost weightless. “It floats. It’s about that gleaming quality – the vitality, the passion that drives you to keep going and not give up”. I, for one, certainly hope Harcourt doesn’t give up. Lustre is the musical must-have of the year.
Lustre will be released on June 14th.
Rating: 5/5.
