Pop Music Reviews : A Costello-esque Harding at Coach House

John Wesley Harding stands widely accused of being a lesser version of Elvis Costello. Playing Thursday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, he blithely pleaded guilty.

The young British rocker (backed by a sharp Los Angeles-based foursome) launched his encore with Costello’s “Miracle Man,” lending new meaning to the refrain, “Why do you have to say that there’s always someone who can do it better than I can?” Harding’s raw but unembittered delivery implied that the sound-alike criticism doesn’t bother him, that he can face accusations that he’s mimicking “someone . . . better.” He was partly right.

Harding’s problem wasn’t that he sounded too much like Elvis Costello. It was that too often he was willing to settle for glibness in place of passion, for cleverness in place of guts, for a wry indulgence in pop trivia in place of a probing look at questions that carry real emotional weight.

If only Harding could have sounded more consistently like his better self, which cropped up on such songs as “The Red Rose and the Briar” and “Save a Little Room for Me,” it wouldn’t have mattered so much that his better self still sounds a lot like someone better.