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Ellie Goulding: Halcyon Review
Indie | Thursday 18th October 2012 | Osh
When Ellie Goulding won the 2010 Critic’s Choice Award, she was pinned as an electro flower child, cut from the same sequined cloth as fellow British divas Little Boots, Marina and the Diamonds and La Roux. Now in 2012, Goulding releases Halcyon – a somewhat fitting title for Ellie’s birdsong style – which sees her metamorphose into a cutting electro-pop aficionado – wailing, rasping and cooing her way through tribal beats, techno loops and ethereal harps.
Although she has not lost her aptitude for saccharine pop ballads (in 2010 ‘Your Song’ had us crying into our stockings over the price of a John Lewis rocking horse); tracks like ‘Joy’ and ‘I Know You Care’ are nice but ultimately lacklustre, and take a backseat to more impressive and technically satisfying songs like ‘Figure 8’ and ‘Explosions’, sprinkled with twinkling harps and a Florence-esque presence. Active Child’s ‘Hanging On’ is given a slick make over in a duet that is somewhat ruined by Tinie Tempah’s nonsensical rap advising the use of Gaviscon to cure heartbreak.
In retrospect, Lights was a tame affair; light, poppy songs that were all air and not much credence. Now Goulding sings with all the emotive conviction of Adele. Halcyon paints with strokes from electro and pop palettes, creating dreampop pictures and doomed soundscapes.
By Pascale Day
