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Baker's Dozen

Death Before Silence: Ed Harcourt's Favourite Albums
Wyndham Wallace , March 4th, 2013 06:44

Singer, songwriter, pianist and all-round bon viveur Ed Harcourt talks to Wyndham Wallace about his favourite records

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Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Bavarian Fruit Bread
I have the Mazzy Star record, the seminal one, So Tonight That I Might See, but I also have the Bavarian Fruit Bread record, and for some reason I seem to play the Bavarian Fruit Bread record more. It’s a sort of Sunday morning record. Oh man, it really chills out the children, I must say! It’s like giving them Mogadon or something: an aural Mogadon. It’s very lush, lustrous and luxurious for the ears. That’s another record I put on a lot when it’s been a long day: end of the night and I’m sitting on my own, reflecting on life’s failures! [Laughs]

I’ve always loved Hope Sandoval’s voice. Bert Jansch is on the record. What more do you want? ‘Suzanne’, and ‘Charlotte’, and the one with Bert Jansch on, ‘Butterfly Mornings’: really beautiful. And I think it’s got the drummer, Colm, from My Bloody Valentine, playing drums.

There’s kind of a French thing going on. You know, you could put it on if you want to be a bit pretentious and sit in a cafe in Paris and smoke some Gauloises and maybe have a little aperitif. That could be the soundtrack in a very mellow way. But there’s no accordion! What was the joke Tom Waits says? “What do you call a true gentleman? A man that can play the accordion but doesn’t…”