From Every Sphere [Bonus Track]

1	Bittersweetheart 4:31
2	All of Your Days Will Be Blessed 3:42
3	Ghost Writer 4:18
4	The Birds Will Sing for Us 4:26
5	Sister Reneé 4:44
6	Undertaker Strut 3:41
7	Bleed a River Deep 4:48
8	Jestetter 3:56
9	Watching the Sun Come Up 5:45
10	Fireflies Take Flight 4:37
11	Metaphorically Sphere 4:46
12	From Every Sphere 7:33
13	The Hammer and the Nail Bonus Track 5:17

Barnes & Noble

With his elaborate, piano-based songs, Ed Harcourt belongs to the club of baroque singer-songwriters that includes Rufus Wainwright, Badly Drawn Boy, Aimee Mann, and Elliott Smith. He doesn't shy from experimenting with song structures and orchestrations, although he's rooted in the classics, such as Burt Bacharach and Elton John. From Every Sphere, Harcourt's third album, is at once tighter, grander, and weirder than its predecessor, Here Be Monsters. The flourishes and ambitions of songs such as "Ghostwriter" and "All of Your Days Will Be Blessed" are abetted by the layers of percussion and keyboard effects that are the trademark of producer Tchad Blake (Los Lobos, Sheryl Crow). But while Blake can sometimes tinker too much, that's not the case here. "Bleed a River Deep" and "Sister Reneé" are breathy piano ballads, buoyed by soft strings and muted horns. "Watching the Sun Come Up" and the title track, on the other hand, grow into broad orchestral climaxes. Harcourt's songs tend to rise and subside and rise again; they shoot for, and usually strike, big emotional epiphanies. Harcourt sometimes treads the edge of bombast, but From Every Sphere never crosses the line. It's an accomplished, ambitious achievement. Steve Klinge

All Music Guide

On his stylish and refined sophomore album From Every Sphere, Ed Harcourt waives the murky soundscapes that overshadowed his 2001 Mercury Music Prize-nominated album Here Be Monsters, for a stripped-down, intimate effort. Instead of fighting adolescence's last days and ignoring adulthood like he did on his first album, Harcourt embraces the fact that he's growing up. Only 25, he's a touch wiser and enjoys his newfound confidence as an individual and as an artist. From Every Sphere, which was initially planned to be a conceptual double album entitled The Ghost Parade, is heavy in spirit while Harcourt relishes in his personal and professional growth. The Bono-like inflections and the quasi-Nick Cave growl are relieved by an inquisitive croon, and Tchad Blake's basic approach from the production seat gives From Every Sphere the time and space to simply arrive. The swanky power pop number "Watching the Sun Come Up" is soaking in space rock threads and a polished brass section, while pianos slowly take shape in the beautiful paranoia of "The Birds Will Sing for Us" and the heart-rending "Bleed a River Deep." When "Ghostwriter" saunters in with its sexy wannabe Tom Waits impression and jazzy abstracts, From Every Sphere doesn't lose ground. Harcourt experiments in more ways than one on this album, never overindulgent in the process. He works with what he knows from personal experience without being redundant and in today's business you have to have beaucoup talent to pull that off. From Every Sphere affirms Ed Harcourt's potential. [The American release adds one bonus track: "The Hammer and the Nail."] MacKenzie Wilson

Rolling Stone

Harcourt is cousin to multi-instrumental songwriters such as Brian Wilson and Badly Drawn Boy. Gavin Edwards

Entertainment Weekly

Harcourt has been blessed with an unerring melodic sensibility -- melancholic, pensive, and wistful. (B+) Wook Kim