Big in… America?

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[5.62]

Iain Mew: Ellie Goulding’s career to date has been really bizarre. Hyped on the basis of a couple of singles including the AMAZING “Under the Sheets”, her short and patchy album seemed a bit of an obvious rush job. It was a UK #1 but faded fast. Then it got rescued by an utterly featureless Elton John cover. In order to try to capitalise, she released this bonus track as a single. It sunk without a trace, presumably due to sounding like “Starry Eyed” without the charm or hooks. Now, a year and a bit later, it is a massive US hit. I am really hoping that someone here will be able to offer an explanation, because I am stumped.
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Will Adams: Fernando Garibay didn’t so much remix this as he did turn up the knobs on everything — tempo, bass, kick drum, synths — which detracts from the vulnerability that the original nailed so well when I first heard it eons ago. Since it’s just been given a glossy sheen, however, there are still some of the original’s lovely elements peeking through the big beats (the delicate bell figure that opens the first version, for example). It’s pretty exciting to see this do so well in the US, even if it had to be made over to sound like “Born This Way” to get there. 
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Katherine St Asaph: Here’s some causation/correlation fallacy for you: just a few weeks ago, I bought Ellie Goulding’s perpetually Next Best album Lights on a $1 whim at a used record store. The next week, it’s suddenly top ten. I have power, guys. (If you ignore “Lights”‘s entire chart history, that is, plus the fact that if I truly had that power I’d have used it on Suddenly, Tammy! instead.) Who actually has power, apparently, is Lady Gaga producer Fernando Garibay and his power inevitably works by remixing this once-bonus track into a Born This Way offcut with a lighter voice. For some, that’d constitute fixing Born This Way. For me, it’s just more prettiness. 
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Ramzi Awn: Echoes of Goulding help keep the half-decent melody out of oblivion, but the otherworldly sensibility of pixie pop doesn’t quite distinguish itself on “Lights.”  A neck above the rest but still a dime a dozen. Somebody’s gotta do it though, and the wave of after-prom nostalgia is a plus.
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Alfred Soto: When she says “touch my skin” she could be talking to herself, which makes sense — from the chirped backup vocals to her timbre she evokes a chart-keen Bjork. Any bit of iconoclasm helps.
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Jer Fairall: Remember the ’90s and remember that this whole ethereal female vocals over a pulsating dance track thing used to be done with much better and weirder singers.
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Jonathan Bogart: Perfectly pleasant synthpop. I take it much of the stuttering is an effect of the remix — but the only-somewhat-appealing naïveté of her voice is enough to build at least one good song around.
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Brad Shoup: I kinda wish this had gone full bosh; the haunted disco treatment is jabbing me in a psychic way. Not all life’s inflection points get a triumphant score, I know that. But Goulding’s gusty huffing behind the beat is turning my heartbeat into a symptom. I’m going to put a lawn chair out front and wait for Cat to get home.
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