Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Beyond The End is a realm in which few grant themselves the luxury of witnessing, so wrapped up in the now, in taking pictures and recording facts of the currently in vogue, they forget that all soon turns to dust, that in the land of the loved lyric and painted words, it is perhaps the tune that endures longer, patient and appreciated; they say that nothing is beyond the finish line of our existence, and yet, as renowned composers of the past have long since been able to demonstrate, their work has lived on past the tolling of any iron bell.

It is in the softness and precision of Ed Harcourt’s Beyond The End that an sense of emotion can be found to be held up to the light and seen to bare a truth in how we react to change, when a figure of recognition and prominence within their field can be seen to delve further into a place in which few will dare to tread, we can understand then the renaissance of some performers as they find ways to express themselves fully, by tackling a desire and giving in to the temptation that surrounds the beauty in their midst.

It is a truth which is fruitful, passionate, a set of melodies in which the musician seeks perhaps a sense of redemption, of the magical, the spiritual and the grace forever presented in his long and distinguished career. Seeing beyond a place in which others insist is the end is a comfort, a place of contentment in where the actions of the deft fingers can create new moods, atmospheres, worlds in which the heart can roam free and enjoy the sensation afforded it.

Across sweeping gestures and time-honoured motions such as Wolves Change Rivers, Empress of the Lake, Faded Photographs, the twin expedition of For My Mother and For My Father and the sublime finale of Whiskey Held My Sleep To Ransom, Ed Harcourt dances upon the keys of the piano at hand and gently asks us him in being able to see beyond the end, to understand that there is no bitter finality, that the horizon is forever shifting and complex.

A beautiful series of arrangements, Beyond The End is just the beginning.

Ian D. Hall