My turn.....
OK so he looks like something out of planet of the apes but he really is a great talent.His Debut album Here Be Monsters is a gorgeous album that narrowly missed a place in the Urban 100. It`s a great combination of folk , rock , jazz & lounge style.His voice kind of sounds like to me a more restrained Bryan Ferry.He`s released a couple more albums since then although to be honest they`re a little bit patchy. But there are a couple of gems on each of them.
In fact it`s become a bit of a joke really as to when he`ll get up off his ass & make the album he`s been promising for years since his debut.He released his 5th album 'The Beautiful Lie' a couple of weeks ago (Although it`s actually his 4th , for some reason everybody seems to be counting his Maplewood E.P. as an album , damn lazy music journalists).
Common concensus to his new album is saying 'Finally he`s done it' but i`ve not heard it myself yet. I`ll leave you with a link to his webpage
www.edharcourt.com
And his biography from Allmusic.com...
This former chef and member of indie-adolescents Snug has extended the range of ingredients, progressed from bass guitar, and long since raided the musical larder (playing piano/keyboards, guitar, banjo, drums, and kitchen sink). At the age of 23, it was alleged he had a backlog of 300-plus songs. They're not all searingly original, but this sort of youthful industry should be warmly encouraged. Harcourt is an obvious disciple of Tom Waits, and the marriage of his dreamland Americana and England's South Coast is sometimes an awkward alliance. Other self-confessed influences include comatose jazzer Chet Baker, incendiary blues showman Screamin' Jay Hawkins -- and, later, Perry Farrell, the Beasties, Gravediggaz, and At the Drive In. With a widening palette and application that sometimes sees him write two or three songs in a day, his career should be an interesting one. Maplewood sounds like a work in progress, indeed Heavenly Records put out the original four-track recordings straight from the rural idyll of his grandma's Sussex house. Here Be Monsters (2002) was recorded in a studio proper, some of the earlier songs are thickened and enriched, and the earlier promise is realized. Some wag has called Harcourt the Fortnum and Mason's version of Badly Drawn Boy, but he's not necessarily upmarket, more of a supermarket perhaps. He should rely on his own fertile soil, mulch his influences more thoroughly, and become an organic shop of real character, just like Damien Gough himself. His live performances are populated by an army of soft toys, with Kermit clinging onto the microphone sound promisingly dotty, but tales of piano trashing seem a bit egotistical and passé. This sort of caper can work with a gun-shaped guitar, but it does seem a bit harsh battering a defenseless piece of mahogany with imperfect ivory teeth. A piano is essentially a sedate and introverted piece of furniture, with hidden harmonic depths. This would be a step too far for Jerry Lee Lewis himself. These are minor quibbles however, Harcourt has youth and bags of talent on his side. In 2003, Harcourt returned with the stripped down sophomore effort From Every Sphere. That year he also toured with both Wilco and R.E.M., and by 2004 had released his third studio album Strangers.
Edit: Link for a torrent of the advance copy of the new album..
http://www.bitenova.nl/download.php?...169423588f987e