SOUND JUDGEMENT

THE LATEST ALBUM RELEASES RATED AND REVIEWED

BRIGHTEST BLUE ELLIE GOULDING

ELLIE Goulding’s new album is what you might call a lesson in pop perfection.

Set in two parts – Brightest Blue and EG.0. – this album is packed with collaborations (Lauv, Diplo and more). Goulding herself has said the first part of the album “reflects my vulnerability... it acknowledges a complex world where relationships still dictate our happiness and heartbreak and can still be the most painful thing in the world, no matter how enlightened you are”.

As a musician, Goulding knows her voice and she knows how to use it, but she also has a knack for adding those smaller details that really take her music to another level.

GASLIGHTER THE CHICKS

GASLIGHTER sees The Chicks return with a new name and a renewed vigour. The new material seems keenly attuned to the politics of today despite their 14-year recording hiatus. As the band released protest song March March last month amid the Black Lives Matter movement, they announced they were dropping the word Dixie, which has ties to Confederacy in the US, from their name. The song is the album’s standout track and sees the group pair their distinctive country style with a pulsating electronic beat alongside lyrics that tackle topics including gun control, abortion rights and climate change.

The band have never shied away from sparking political controversy and the rest of the album is similarly thoughtful and provocative.

STRINGS ATTACHED BOYZLIFE

BOYZONE and Westlife were two of the biggest boybands to emerge from Ireland during the 90s. More than two decades later, we have this: an album from Boyzone’s Keith Duffy and Westlife’s Brian McFadden. Revisiting their respective triumphs is the order of the day. Strings Attached, with its half-joke of a title, features orchestral versions of nine UK number one songs from their groups’ respective back catalogues, accompanied by the famed Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s an unashamed nostalgia trip that adds little but a dusting of contemporary glitz.