Adele has nothing to worry about
Goulding’s a little too detached to grab U.K.’S heartache crown
With Adele about to journey into motherhood, the music industry is already wondering who might be her heir(ess) apparent.
Ellie Goulding, perhaps? Not only is she a sister Brit who likes to sing about broken hearts, the rising electro-pop star seems to beg for the anointment during the first few seconds of her second album, Halcyon.
“Wooooah, if you never,” Goulding warbles on Don’t Say A Word, which borrows the same opening melody from Adele’s Grammy-winning smash, Rolling In The Deep. That’s where the similarities end, of course. Adele’s hit is a defiant, gospel-flavoured raspberry to an ex-lover — “You could’ve had it all!” — while Goulding’s tune is a gauzy, fragile (and perhaps confusing) plea for ... love, quiet acceptance, retribution?
“So now I give you, all my sins/I’ve chosen you, I’ve chosen you,” she coos like a pixie trapped in a cave of crystals. “But don’t say a word.”
There’s no denying her incredible voice — a dazzling gem with sweet, airy, and tangy facets — which landed her a gig as the wedding singer at Will and Kate’s reception. Yet Goulding’s pipes are also imbued with a degree of detachment — as if she’s not yet able or willing to reveal all of her foibles, heartbreaks and vulnerabilities to us, even though she thinks she is. (Halcyon was largely inspired by the breakup of her two-year relationship with a BBC TV and radio personality.)
Which might also explain the lack of payoff on the 18-track album, which she refers to as her journey from “dark to light,” according to one of Britain’s biggest tabloids, The Sun. As supple, gorgeous and soaring as Goulding’s electro-pop tunes are, they rarely explode into greatness. You can sense she wants to make the leap from mainstream pop to avantgarde visionary — but she ends up only sounding like a safer version of Canadian electropop star Grimes, who recently toured with Goulding’s new boyfriend/dubstep king Skrillex during his Full Flex Express tour.
The Brit occasionally comes close to musical exultation — as on Anything Could Happen or Only You, two dance- pop numbers that turn her exhalations into beats — but never quite crosses over, leaving her listeners feeling more like frustrated lovers. Then again, maybe that’s supposed to be the whole point of her album?
“You promise forever and a day,” she accuses on Figure 8, a mid-tempo ditty which heaves with gritty, squelchy beats. “Then you take it all away.” ssperounes@ edmontonjournal.com Twitter.com/Sperounes edmontonjournal. com For more music reviews and news, visit Sandra’s blog at edmontonjournal.com/ pluggedin.