Goulding has a strong enough voice that when she toured with the decidedly more rootsy blues and country-influenced American songwriter Lissie in 2010, they brought the house down with several pitch-perfect, soulful duets, so the move toward a more atmospheric, sonically layered approach feels decidedly more like a conscious aesthetic choice.
She sets these sparkling, multi-tracked vocal sections against roiling arpeggiated grand piano lines, the digital pluck of harps, echoey orchestral samples, and the ever present hum of deep bass synth. Also in keeping with the arty-electronic atmosphere of the album, Goulding dresses up her powerful lark of a voice with a delicately laced veil of digital effects. Tracks like the baroque "My Blood" and lustful club-groover "Figure 8" have a crisp, pulsating electronic buoyancy that, as with all of the songs on Halcyon, vibrate with a palpable dramatic tension. Aside from a few songs like the gutting, bittersweet piano ballad "I Know You Care" - which itself brings to mind her smash 2010 cover of Elton John's "Your Song" - Halcyon is largely built around epic long-form anthems and shimmery moments of gargantuan synthesizer drama. Where Lights featured a handful of well-crafted singer/songwriter-styled singles such as "Guns and Horses" and the disco-bliss number "Starry Eyed," Halcyon keeps the singer/songwriter lyricism, but expands upon the electronic and symphonic palette. On her sophomore effort, 2012's Halcyon, Goulding moves in an even more arty, electronic direction.
Gifted with a disarmingly throaty - yet still resonant - voice and attractive, girl-next-door charisma that combines Kate Bush's cherubic art pop croon mixed with the asymmetrical half-smile charm of Drew Barrymore, Goulding stood out among the sea of post- Imogen Heap synth folk songstresses such as Little Boots, La Roux, and Lykke Li. Ultimately, it's the unexpectedly appealing combination of Goulding's distinctive voice and the melismatic R&B bent of the songs on Delirium that makes for such an ecstatic listen.With her 2010 debut, Lights, and the expanded Bright Lights, British vocalist Ellie Goulding bridged the gap between the soulful adult contemporary beltings of Adele and the more primal indie rock gospel of Florence + the Machine. There are also enough passionately heartfelt EDM anthems, like the effusive "Army" and bubbly, Ibiza-ready "Devotion," to please longtime Goulding fans. That said, Goulding's voice has always fit well in the contemporary pop landscape and even when you get the sense that she's trying on someone else's sound, as in the CeeLo-esque "Around U" and the swoon-worthy "Codes" with its '90s Brandy-meets- M83 vibe, the sheer craftsmanship of the material alone keeps you listening. Whereas Halcyon may have required several listens to grow on you, Delirium grabs you with immediately hooky, danceable tracks like "Something in the Way You Move," "Keep on Dancin'," and "Don't Need Nobody." Some of the more R&B-leaning cuts like the Police-meets- Rihanna single "On My Mind" seem at first like an odd fit for Goulding's highly resonant, throaty chirp of a voice. Halcyon also benefited from a similarly collaborative approach, but Delirium feels less distinctly personal, bigger in scope, and brimming with a pressurized commercial energy. Helping Goulding to achieve this are a handful of uber-pop producer/songwriters, including Sweden's Max Martin ( Britney Spears, Taylor Swift) and Carl Falk ( One Direction, Nicki Minaj), Savan Kotecha ( Ariana Grande, One Direction), Greg Kurstin ( Sia, P!nk), and others. While Delirium isn't devoid of this electronic atmosphere, it's somewhat more mainstream in its tone, and finds Goulding expanding her sonic palette with a melodically catchy set of more R&B-infused songs. Goulding's previous effort, 2012's Halcyon, was a hypnotically ambient, lightly experimental album that balanced catchy pop hooks with textural electronic soundscapes.
British chanteuse Ellie Goulding returns with her highly anticipated third studio album, 2015's expertly produced Delirium.
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