Goodness gracious, I can’t seem to stop listening to Ellie Goulding. The day-glow princess released her second album, Halcyon, more than a year ago. It quickly became an obsession for tons of Synth Pop and Dance music fans — and plenty of less synth-obsessed music lovers, too.
Her first album, Lights, was gorgeous. It peaked at No. 1 on the U.K. charts but never broke into the Top 20 in the U.S. For her fans, it felt like America was painfully slow to hop on the Goulding bandwagon. It took her collaboration with David Guetta on “I Need Your Love” before Goulding began to see the respect she deserved.
Thankfully, a resurgence of love for techie, synth-heavy Pop music came at just the right time. Halcyon added a completely new dimension of club-friendly bells and whistles, pulling in an even bigger audience. One of her newest singles, “Burn,” has quickly become one of those “overplayed” songs on the radio that no one seems particularly sick of (yet).
Speaking of Halcyon: It’s pure perfection. Directly after “Burn” comes “Goodness Gracious,” a song about loving too hard and trying desperately to play it cool and not cling too tight. Not every song on the album is meant for dancing, though. “JOY” stands out as quite possibly the best song on the album, but at just over three minutes it never seems long enough. What comes in at almost a whisper builds slowly into a ballad. Soon after, a beat drops and it explodes into a choral event … and then it’s over. I need more. It’s not enough. “Dead in the Water” is a heartbreaking slow-burner, the vocal ghosting making it all the more difficult to handle.
Together with the rest of the album, Halcyon could not possibly get any better. (Unless you buy the deluxe addition, Halcyon Days, with her sexy-as-hell cover of Alt-J’s “Tessellate,” which you should.)
Will her vocal power and stirring beats translate well live? It’s hard to imagine they won’t. Bonus: She’s playing at the Shoe where there’s plenty of room for flailing around.
ELLIE GOULDING performs at Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati's outdoor venue The Shoe on Wednesday, May 7. More info here .
