Ed Harcourt- Here Be Monsters

By Aurora Armijo, The Collegian

Three stars

       Ed Harcourt is not the kind of man youd like to have with you while walking down a dark alley.

            Ed wouldnt do you any good.  His album, Here Be Monsters, would have you believe that the only things that Harcourt is good any good at is putting his oh-so-sensitive feelings on display and writing mellow songs.

            While he is indeed adept at carrying out these tasks, the fact that he can is somewhat disturbing.  With an album title like Here Be Monsters, one expects a somewhat more, um, masculine sound.

            In fact, the only song that distantly lives up to the albums name is Shanghai, the obligatory We should move somewhere else and love, love, LOVE each other ditty.  It is only during this track that Harcourt turns up the vocal meter from bland to bland-with-testosterone and growls, Shanghaaaiiii! repeatedly.  His angry tone wouldnt strike fear in those that the easiest to scare.

            The greatest thing about Here Be Monsters is that the best songs are the second and third tracks on the albumyou really dont have to waste your time listening to the whole thing.  The rest of the songs have their momentsa nice piano or violin solobut youll soon tire of Harcourt himself. 

            Instead, focus your energies on God Protect Your Soul, on which the music vaguely resembles a Tom Jones-style horn section.  Youll find yourself introspectively gyrating your hips in time to the musicIntrospectively because Harcourts lyrics are near-annoyingly both cheesy and sincere.

            With Duncan Sheiks good looks and two-thirds his song-writing skills, Harcourt is well on his way to mediocre-artsy bliss.