Ed Harcourt

Another year, another baroque beauty from Ed Harcourt. The Beautiful Lie has all of Harcourt's strengths, including the catchy yet complex songcraft that plays like a winning collaboration between Tom Waits, the Divine Comedy and Burt Bacharach. Harcourt's breathy vocals fall somewhere between Colin Blunstone and Chris Martin, making him a natural for such darkly cinematic ballads as "Rain on the Pretty Ones." But Harcourt knows how to rock the piano too -- check out "Visit From the Dead Dog," another sublime Harcourt hand-clapper that is worthy of heavy alt-rock airplay.