Having been around for a few years now, Ed Harcourt has never really made it. A series of high profile support slots, for the likes of R.E.M. and Snow Patrol, and four studio albums haven’t been enough to catapult the singer-songwriter to mainstream success.

2006 release Beautiful Lie is without doubt Ed Harcourt’s most accomplished piece of work. The underlying melancholy of the album and the beauty of some of the arrangements leave the listener feeling weak at the knees. Sounding like an English Elliott Smith, Harcourt takes his influences from the right places. There are definite traces of Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley throughout the album, with the underlying pathos of the record akin to so many of his singer-songwriter peers.

The album does have its definite high and low points; Revolution in the Heart marks the high point of the record. This is Harcourt at his most passionate, singing out to whoever will listen, fighting for the people. The song is an obvious choice for a single and easily the most impassioned moment of the record. The Last Cigarette is another highly emotive moment on the album. A violin occasionally plays softly in the background bringing out the sorrow of Harcourt’s finger-picked chords. Lyrically while the song comes across as being extremely depressing, the solace and rebellion the characters take from the smoking make the tune very uplifting.

The moments of the record which seem to have a circus feel to them I felt were very weak. Scatterbraine has an extremely disjointed sound to it and I Am The Drug just feels like filler. It might just be me having a short attention span, but every single time I listened to the album I could feel myself losing interest towards the end. This isn’t taking away from the quality of the music on show here, just at 54 minutes Beautiful Lie did feel too long.

Ed Harcourt has finally lived up to his potential with this record. Lyrically it is very impressive and the production is far superior to any of his previous attempts. Beautiful Lie does have its downsides but they are blown away by the more heartfelt moments and some of Harcourt’s more impassioned vocals.

Definitely worth a listen.