I just now learned that “Lights” wasn’t particularly big in the UK, and I’m not sure how to cope…

[Video][Website]
[5.29]

Anthony Easton: The angelic choruses read as a cheap effect, as does the mention of ghosts, and the terrible “grace”/”face” rhyme. But I love her voice, and I love how quietly she sings “explosions,” and in the middle of an anxious week, how she says “it will be okay” is genuinely helpful.
[7]

Pete Baran: There’s a precision to Ellie Goulding’s voice which has suited her electronic-heavy previous work and served her extremely well in the rent-a-chorus market that is one of the few growth areas of the British economy at the moment. So this relatively stripped back track is a bit of a departure for her, and she pulls it off pretty well. The build is textbook, the metaphor strong and it grabs the small amount of emotion it is aiming for. For it to work properly though I would want even more of an explosion at its heart.
[6]

Crystal Leww: The problem with Ellie Goulding is that while her voice is very distinct, it lacks personality and power. So while she can be great when she paints a very specific picture with details (the “the crafty smoke that made us choke” in “Wish I Stayed”) or when the production is interesting (“Starry Eyed”, “Figure 8”), her songs are bland when she slows it down and goes straight ballad like on “Lights” and here. This sort of song requires real power to pull off, but there is nothing explosive about this song.
[3]

Jonathan Bogart: The old nineties trick of tortured pronunciation standing in for emotional content is as well-done as it ever was, but the solemn cannonfire-in-the-distance percussion only underlines how little is actually there.
[4]

Brad Shoup: She can still make explosions, at least the controlled-demolition kind. I do love her vocal grain, that pack-a-day grit, but still I’d have to give MVP honors to the choral warmups.
[6]

Alfred Soto: Her smoky voice deserves post-Robyn dance-pop settings, not sub-Rihanna crossovers.
[4]

Scott Mildenhall: The video is comprised of tour footage, but wait — the album campaign isn’t over just yet. That’s mainly down to a widely-seen video featuring people standing, looking moody, walking, looking moody — even sitting and looking moody — before exploding in to such explosive actions as a passionate kiss, a fight, and shouting off a bridge, blowing this not-really-that-big audio dynamite up into the lofty heights of the UK top 20. What’s more, it’s all been done via the old-fashioned warm glow of television. The anti-“Harlem Shake,” if you really must.
[7]