Ellie Goulding – Starry Eyed
Presumably no relation to Bobbie…
[Myspace]
[5.93]
John Seroff: Nothing betrays a lazy American music critic quite like labeling a Euro songbird as “sounding like Björk” but MAN, does this EVER sound like “Venus As a Boy”-era Björk. It’s not just Goulding’s breathy, lightly inflected, up-on-the-last-syllable singing style that begs the comparison; there’s also the rambling, cutesy-poo lyrics and the gently humanistic evocation of new love’s giddy first week. The barely-there butterfly kiss of a hook provides gentle and charming support for Goulding’s sweetly effervescent voice. There’s not too much to sink your teeth into here, but what more could you reasonably ask from anything this fine and frothy but a meringue?
[8]
Martin Skidmore: Another British electro-pop female. This one sings in what seems a mannered, even childish, cutesy tone, but the music is skilled, with some likeable vocal layering. There’s almost no detectable song, though, and the singing style is soon wearing.
[2]
Pete Baran: Ooh, it goes backwards, stuttering, and seems uncomfortably high pitched. And then her voice is a bit vulnerable and she even uses an accent. Is that a lisp? How many tricks has she got in that magic girl singer bag of hers?
[5]
Frank Kogan: Folkie who puts the sort of little-girl breathless-with-wonder voice that I hate more and more the more people use it is tossed into a British dance subgenre that Lex knows the name of, I’m sure, one of those that surrounds voices with miniature wavelets of passion and gently slithering beats and locates poignance in many better singers than Goulding and manages to locate poignance in her, too.
[6]
Ian Mathers: I think it’s because Goulding’s voice sounds kind of distant and disconnected from the rest of the music, but this really sounds to me like a remix of some sort of pleasant enough acoustic ditty. It also sounds a bit Imogen Heap. So I think “milquetoast” is the word.
[6]
Keane Tzong: A pleasant, inoffensive take on more “organic” electronic sounds, one that seems to have been born of no artistic ambition other than exasperation with harder synth sounds. Ellie Goulding’s voice is simultaneously pleasantly frail and full of warmth and vigor, but it can’t polish this into something much more than the minor, transient pleasure it is.
[7]
Iain Mew: The wispy girlish yelps remind me pleasantly of Cathy Davey – yet together with the soft touch electronica the song is very nearly too unassuming all round. There are moments to savour though, with the fun way the backing track resets itself a minute in and the build to joyfully revelling in the moment of “next thing, we’re touching”.
[7]
Michaelangelo Matos: This has a vaguely rave-flashback feel in the arrangement (helium-ish vocal, big bass undertow, bells and strings and piano oh my), but it’s light as a good omelet; it reminds me indirectly of 88.3’s “Wishing on a Star.” Maybe it’s the trembling stuff about “and we’re touching,” which sounds less calculated than my description probably suggests.
[7]
Hillary Brown: A smidge too much of the same thing.
[4]
Anthony Miccio: Why is everyone singing like wood nymph at dawn these days? I’m all for speeding up Bat For Lashes, but the effect sure doesn’t make that Bjork Orton voice any less ridiculous.
[6]
Edward Okulicz: For a minute I assumed this must be some remix of a song halfway between, say, Imogen Heap and Stina Nordenstam and thought “Wow, I bet the original is fantastic”, then I realised it’s meant to sound like that. And it is an accomplished composition, but Goulding’s childlike helium tones ruin any chance of intimacy or sensuality from lines like “next thing, we’re touching” and make them sound either creepy or infantile depending on your level of charitability.
[5]
Alex Ostroff: I first heard Ellie Goulding on the Starsmith Remix of Passion Pit’s “Sleepyhead“. It’s fitting, therefore, that “Starry Eyed” shares a certain ineffable quality with the Passion Pit original. Both are songs that so effectively communicate the feeling of pure bliss that their meaning becomes secondary to the listening experience. This is very nearly a shame, because her lyrics are stunningly evocative. I press play, and together, we “burst into colours in carousels; fall headfirst, like paper planes and playground games.” Hit me with lightning, indeed.
[10]
Alfred Soto: I distrust people who burst into colors as a rule, especially when she evokes the monochromatic tints of Beth Orton imitating Bjork.
[4]
Martin Kavka: In an interview, Goulding states that this song is about “sex and drugs and having a good time.” It’s like much dance music in this respect, but it doesn’t work for me nearly as much as I’d hoped. The bass is afraid to make its presence known, and combined with a glockenspiel and Ellie’s über-twee voice, reminds me far more of sexual fumbling than of actual sex.
[6]
It really is quite Beth Orton, isn’t it. But is that such a terrible thing?
Quickly quickly, find another British folk singer to compare her to! She doesn’t sound like Beth Orton in the slightest. I read a fairly unnoticeable quote on Goulding’s myspace (intentionally crossed out, is she shy? Or maybe she doesn’t agree) “Singing with vocals like they’ve been weakened by God and poured across some celestial folktronic backdrop nails the first remotely unique sound for ages.”
Don’t worry, K.A., a lot of the Americans here think every dance record out sounds like Fatboy Slim, too.
Most of these critiques reveal perhaps more about the limited perspective of their writers than they do about Ellie Goulding. I suppose that in this world of immediate gratification and corporate blandness those same writers would happily write off anyone and everyone for failing to produce a masterpiece every time.
I am the first to admit that I much prefer Goulding’s more acoustic work and feel that her producers sometimes forget that they are meant to be making the most of her rather than of themselves, but that’s the way the music business works.
The great thing about Goulding for me is that she has been out there working the circuit, learning her trade, writing and playing herself. She is the real deal, not some over-marketed plastic, silicone filled bimbo. The lady has brains and real talent, as her fans already know.
Curiously, every one of the people she has been likened to were themselves likened to a predecessor and each one sold millions – funny that.
As they say: Those who can do; those who can’t teach; those who can’t even teach become critics – and who ever remembers a critic??
We haven’t heard the last of Ellie Goulding.
Thanks, Ellie Goulding’s dad.
Dude, the top ten songs of the year as chosen by this lot, are all of 20% better numerically. A collective six on this site is a recommendation! It’s better than average!
“As they say: Those who can do; those who can’t teach; those who can’t even teach become critics – and who ever remembers a critic??”
Excellent burn until you remember that YOU ARE THE ONE WRITING COMMENTS ON A MUSIC WEBSITE, which is the only thing lower than being a critic…or a Blue Dog Democrat.
‘The great thing about Goulding for me is that she has been out there working the circuit, learning her trade, writing and playing herself. She is the real deal, not some over-marketed plastic, silicone filled bimbo.’
Her and, what, thousands of others? That’s selling her really short for a fan.
‘Curiously, every one of the people she has been likened to were themselves likened to a predecessor and each one sold millions’
Cathy Davey? Stina Nordenstam? I want to believe!
A world where Cathy Davey fluked a massive hit single is much better than this one. I think Phil is on to something though, she’s clearly talented – I really like the melody of this song, I just think the production makes her sound really infantile – like, ethereal in the sense of being weightless, not floating. So I’m happy to blame the producers.
Oooh look everybody, it’s a mounted knight attacking a creampuff.
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>…Excellent burn until you remember that YOU ARE THE ONE WRITING COMMENTS ON A MUSIC WEBSITE, which is the only thing lower than being a critic…or a Blue Dog Democrat….<
Sorry I didn't have time to respond to this comment. I was busy in the studio.
By the way, what the heck is a Blue Dog thingy? Some foreign poodle?
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I don’t care too much for the original, but this remix just does it for me. I love it after it being butchered for the good bits, thank you Jakwob.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmvI98s2jno&feature=related