• Record Label: Heavenly
  • Release Date: May 20, 2003
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 1 out of 5

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  1. KB
    May 6, 2005
    9
    Forget what the critics say. They wouldnt know genius if it came and bit them....yeah. I get the feeling from various interviews that Ed has disowed this album a little. But forget the naysayers, its magnificant. Full of harmony and class. Sometimes i think Ed's aspiring to be the 'new' Tom Waits but with this record he reached a place of his own. Theres drunken ballads Forget what the critics say. They wouldnt know genius if it came and bit them....yeah. I get the feeling from various interviews that Ed has disowed this album a little. But forget the naysayers, its magnificant. Full of harmony and class. Sometimes i think Ed's aspiring to be the 'new' Tom Waits but with this record he reached a place of his own. Theres drunken ballads a-plenty but also moments of weird instrumentation which bely an obvious broken heart. Plus the lyrics are grand. The guys obvously been reading a little Burroughs along with a good amount of the brothers Grimm. Bow down man, this is friggen genius. Expand
  2. GarrethO
    Apr 22, 2003
    10
    Ok so nothing can be perfect but it's hard to imagine a much better album. I'm not his mum in disguise I genuinely am fascinated by this brilliant album. I spend all day waiting to come home and listen to it which has never happened to me with music before. The tunes are unforgetable and the arrangements are far more thought out than Here Be monsters. I was surprised it was so Ok so nothing can be perfect but it's hard to imagine a much better album. I'm not his mum in disguise I genuinely am fascinated by this brilliant album. I spend all day waiting to come home and listen to it which has never happened to me with music before. The tunes are unforgetable and the arrangements are far more thought out than Here Be monsters. I was surprised it was so good up till now he was just a name on my CD rack, now he's like god or something. May all of his days be blessed. (and let him make another album this good) Expand
  3. matta
    Jul 18, 2005
    10
    Wow, Pitchfork really are just a bunch of morons. If it isn't Radiohead or the like with some weird space music, electronic shit going on in the background then it just isn't good according to them. Well they can suck it. This album is incredible in every single way, one of the absolute best albums of 2003, right up there with Pernice Brothers, Sufjan Stevens, and The Notwist. Wow, Pitchfork really are just a bunch of morons. If it isn't Radiohead or the like with some weird space music, electronic shit going on in the background then it just isn't good according to them. Well they can suck it. This album is incredible in every single way, one of the absolute best albums of 2003, right up there with Pernice Brothers, Sufjan Stevens, and The Notwist. Don't listen to the critics on this one; discover Ed harcourt and you won't regret it. Collapse
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 19 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 19
  2. Negative: 0 out of 19
  1. Q Magazine
    60
    Like his debut, From Every Sphere chokes on moments of indigestible excess. [Mar 2003, p.108]
  2. Mojo
    40
    For every aching melodic twist and sagacious lyric, there's a lumpy, sub-Beach Boys dirge and dicing-with-doggerel couplet to negotiate. [Mar 2003, p.103]
  3. Entertainment Weekly
    83
    His songs recall both the musical inventiveness of Captain Beefheart and the mopey poetry of Elliot Smith. [30 May 2003, p.116]