The boy in the beaten-up velvet jacket picks up his cup. "He's 28, newly and happily married, the son-in-law of an ocarina maker and the great-nephew of Elizabeth David ...he's an agnostic brought up Protestant with a Buddha necklace... a nervous ball of energy, a little black sheep." The boy takes a sip. "And he's a solo artist, a collaborator, a session musician, a part-time blues player and thrash metal band member ... a collector of weird instruments, and a musical whore." Ed Harcourt puts down his coffee and laughs. Ed Harcourt is a bit raffish and gloriously hungover, but also the best company you could imagine over a fried breakfast in Soho on a warm Saturday morning. He's also hard-working, creative and sickeningly prolific. *The Beautiful Lie*, his fifth album in six years, in between outside projects with bands like Wild Boar and the Dead Thank Yous, is the latest in his line of inventive, adventurous records. And it's the best thing he's ever done. Read more...