Ed Harcourt's promoters declare his new album lays his soul on a plate for all to devour.

However, after his performance at Concorde 2, I don't really fancy nibbling his soul. It seems a little jaded.

Towards the end of the set, Ed apologised for being tired. It seemed promoting the album From Every Sphere, launched last week, was taking its toll.

The evening just wasn't the energy-charged blast fans have come to expect and the emphasis was on ballads.

The highlight of the gig was a fantastic song about watching the sun rise. By this point, it seemed Ed and the band had relaxed into the music, finally stirring the passion we had been promised, and produced an energy-fuelled piece reminiscent of jazz improvisation.

But just as toes really started tapping it was all over.

The flashing lights went off and the band abruptly left the stage.

The crowd seemed a bit startled having waited out the set for just such a fiery performance only to have it taken away.

Ed and his backing band are undoubtedly very talented, accomplished musicians.

It was hard to keep track of the number of instruments played - trumpet, double bass, guitars, violin, two keyboards, harmonica, not to mention a machine that made a weird and wonderful wailing noise.

And the singer/songwriter jumped between instruments effortlessly, at one point helping out with the drums.

At times, the eclectic mix brought a depth to the performance. You could clearly pick out the trumpet over a Metallica-like thrash session played out under strobe lights, which made a fantastic juxtaposition.

However, at other times I wished Ed would stop chopping and changing instruments and styles and settle into one thing.

It was like doing a world tour and spending half an hour in each country.

He told how us he was at HMV earlier that day, which was "great".

"Someone gave me a clown," he said. "I burnt it."

Asides like this restored my faith after reading a particularly pretentious biography earlier in the day which I sincerely hope was tongue-in-cheek.

But precious artiste or not, Ed needed a lot of love. He came back for two encores, albeit rather grudgingly.

Ed's first album, Here Be Monsters, was lavished with praise and saw him compared to his heroes Jeff Buckley and Tom Waits so his second offering has a lot to live up to.

Judging by this appearance, he doesn't quite pull it off but it could have been an off night.