His first studio album in four years, Lustre marks the welcome return of Ed Harcourt to the music scene. Having parted company with Heavenly following the release of the best of compilation Until Tomorrow Then, Lustre is released via Harcourt’s own Piano Wolf label. As his own label boss, Harcourt seems to have been able to give himself the time he needed to settle, mature and reflect. The albums artwork shows Harcourt with his wife and daughter, huddled on a beach under a foreboding sky. Both his wife and daughter are key to Lustre, the former as the leader of The Langley Sisters who provide backing vocals throughout the record, the latter as the subject of the touching album closer ‘Fears of The Father’.

The album begins with a siren call from The Langley Sisters, a swirling string motif looping around it, drawing the listener once again into Harcourt’s world of free associations, and bizarre futures. A meditation and reflection- there is an easy familiarity to its melody. ‘Haywired’ follows, and, as with the albums opener, it feels like classic Harcourt- thoughtful observations, dry wit and catchy hooks: the crashing refrain “It’s not easy to be happy and get away with it” is simple but effective, and is driven to a crecendo by electro burbles and warm melotron. Both songs sit very comfortably alongside Harcourt’s best work. ‘Heart of a Wolf’ finds Harcourt engaging in his finest Tom Waits-mode: starting with ticking percussion and distorted vocal, before turning in to a glam stampalong with horns and chorus line coos and one mighty riff. It’s charmingly deranged, and damn good fun.

If it sounds like a case of “So far, so contented”, there are still moments in which Harcourt unleashes his ire: In what is probably the most straight up pop song of his career ‘Do As, I Say Not As I Do’ Harcourt takes on the fatcats, political medusas and “the house of cards they built”. Built on a jaunty riff, handclaps and woo-oo-oos with lashings of fuzzed guitar, it is a track that deserves to be played allowed on a summers day outside. Elsewhere Harcourt turns on miserable boys in bands who “assume that sorrow is nigh on obligatory”. While the Langley Sisters coo “why so sad?” Harcourt dryly intones “I’m a recipe for disaster/ I’m a has been no good bastard”, whilst single handedly out-doing his targets at their own game.

Elsewhere ‘A Secret Society’ charges along at pace, full of shimmy’s and sha-la-la’s but isn’t quite as memorable as some of the other material here, whilst ‘When The Lost Don’t Want To Be Found’ is given a helping hand by some classic Spector-like production. Epic closer ‘Fears of a Father’ is a swaying, deeply personal love letter from a parent to a child, made all the more touching by the fact that both parents singing on it.

Lustre is a solid return, and offers plenty for old fans and newcomers alike, as well as providing further evidence that Harcourt is consistently one of the best songwriters operating in Britain today.