Ed Harcourt's high-stakes U.S. tour lands in Seattle

ROSS RAIHALA, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Friday, March 15, 2002

Given the commercial success of British folkie David Gray and the critical acclaim accorded to fellow Brit Badly Drawn Boy, it's no surprise that record labels here and abroad have scrambled to find the next big, British and vaguely edgy singer/songwriter.

Ed Harcourt, the latest entry in those sweepstakes, releases his debut album "Here Be Monsters" on these shores March 26. He's also just launched his first-ever stateside tour, with a stop planned Monday in Seattle.

His home country's music press may stylistically lump Harcourt in with the million-selling Gray, although it's a comparison that doesn't quite ring true.

Indeed, "Here Be Monsters" is an ambitious, lush record that treads much closer to the sonic territory currently being explored by the likes of current buzz bands Starsailor and Elbow.

"When someone mentions 'singer/songwriter' to me, I immediately start to wince," Harcourt said during a phone interview from London last week. "As soon as you say it, you think of some young, earnest guy with a guitar singing about idealized love or whatever."

And while love certainly does figure into parts of "Here Be Monsters," Harcourt also tackles such unlikely and unromantic topics as patricide.

"I think it's important for someone who is perceived as a singer/songwriter to freak people out now and then," said the 23-year-old Harcourt.

To that end, Harcourt made "Here Be Monsters" with Tim Holmes, better known as half of the dark electronic group Death in Vegas.

The end result surprised even Harcourt.

"It turned out quite orchestral without having a lot of orchestral instruments," he said. "It sounds like an organic record, but we used samplers and computers to create this ambient texture underneath the songs."

Upon its 2001 release abroad, "Here Be Monsters" earned Harcourt some out-of-the-gates critical acclaim, including a New Musical Express review that raved "Harcourt's retro sound is an exuberant, ambitious thing, which harks back to a time when bringing jazz, blues, gospel or folk influences into play on a rock album was a perfectly natural thing."

Harcourt whittled down the 11 tracks on the album from a pool of more than 300 he's amassed in recent years. And he's already started work on a follow-up record, although he wryly noted "I'm not allowed to talk about that."

He can, however, talk about his love of '70s-era American music -- albeit more Tom Waits than Tom Petty -- and his desire to "break" this country.

For his first tour here, he'll play guitar and piano accompanied by only a sole trumpet player. He'll take a full band along for his return jaunt in May.

"I know it's still pretty tough for an English act to make it in America," Harcourt said. "I'm just going to go out there and do my best. I don't have a problem falling flat on my face. In the '70s, people did really mad, stupid things and sometimes they'd fail spectacularly, but at least they tried. It's important to make an effort."

Ross Raihala covers entertainment for The Olympian and can be reached at 360-754-5406 or rraihala@olympia.gannett.com.

Ed Harcourt

- When: 7 p.m. March 18.

- Where: Crocodile Cafe, 2200 Second Ave., Seattle.

- Tickets: $10.

- For information: Call Ticketweb at 866-468-7623 or see www.ticketweb.com.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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