Ellie Goulding
Album: Lights
Label: Polydor
Rating: ***1/2
Britain’s streak of fanciful female singer-songwriters continues with Londoner Ellie Goulding — not that the streak was in jeopardy. Like Florence, Lily or La Roux, Ellie’s music is both chart-bound (she recently reached No. 1 on U.K. charts), but also distinctly inventive. Cutting her teeth on simple folk music, Ellie eventually rerouted her musical path to slot in synthesizers and sequenced beats. The transformation provides an interesting conjunction — her folkie vocal quiver could certainly survive stripped down to just an acoustic guitar, but the frantic rhythm and keys that commands Starry Eyed and the synthy ecstasy of I’ll Hold My Breath give Ellie her trademark.
