Ed Harcourt's new (seventh) album Furnaces (out on August 19) isn't for the faint-hearted. The almost-veteran UK singer-songwriter has swung fleetingly into dark, dystopian territory before, on songs favourably compared to Tom Waits' own surreal musings. But his latest album – his first release since 2014's Time Of Dust – is a dark, roiling effort perfectly made for these times.
Recorded with Flood, who's best known for working on similarly foreboding records by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey and Foals, it's Harcourt's first on a major label and packs all the punch required to break through and lift Harcourt beyond cult status.
Since his debut album Here Be Monsters was nominated for the 2001 Mercury Prize, Harcourt has flown under the radar – as a solo artist, at least. In his other guise as a songwriter, producer and musician for hire, he's worked with James Bay, Paloma Faith, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, The Libertines, Marianne Faithfull and Beck.
Furnaces, though, is a big, tough, defiant statement – a record made for people to dance in the streets to in the face of impending doom. Says Harcourt: "I wanted to make a record that people can cry, f**k and fight to. I hadn’t made a record before that has this kind of danger to it." It also comes with artwork by Hunter S Thompson collaborator, Ralph Steadman.
Listen to the album's title track in the player below and join an ever-increasing legion of obsessive fans.
Ed Harcourtis on Facebook.
His new album, Furnaces, is out on August 19. Preorder it here.
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