Album Review: Ellie Goulding, Halcyon

Published on 07/10/2012 00:00

Polydor £12.99

***

Ellie Goulding reckons she has moved on hugely since her first album, and she 
may have a point. This is a far more satisfying record than her debut, and was largely written and co-produced with Jim Eliot, who knows a thing or two about successful female artists, having worked with Kylie Minogue and Ladyhawke. And it’s a whooping, triumphant pop record bursting with confidence.

My Blood might just be that little hip pop nugget to cement her place in the modern chart firmament. Failing that, the complex signatures of Figure 8 should definitely do it, even if the more esoteric Joy finds her too closely in touch with an inner Minnie Riperton, and seems more about hitting the unfeasibly high note than achieving that unforgettable melody.

The booming bass-heavy percussion anchors these flights of vocal fancy on Joy and Hanging On, and the bursts of electro punctuate any potential sickly side-effects from the overly cutesy singer-songwriter moments. The 25-year-old gets serious from the start, mashing John Martyn and Bjork on the slightly barmy Don’t Say A Word, and seems to channel Carole Bayer Sager on Anything Could Happen, with instrumentation that could be Chicory Tip doing deep house.

Goulding is one of the few pop acts who appear to have benefited from having the novelty wear off – and not working with her boyfriend, Skrillex.

Colin Somerville

Download this: Figure 8, My Blood