Albums to watch

Lights

Ellie Goulding

Lights

Debut album of electropop and folk pop from BBC Sound of 2010 and BRIT Critics Choice Award winner

ADM rating[?]

5.9

Label
Polydor
UK Release date
01/03/2010
US Release date
08/03/2011
  1. 8.0 |   Q

    Print edition only

  2. 8.0 |   The Fly

    Goulding has well and truly proved herself here.
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  3. 8.0 |   Daily Telegraph

    Ellie Goulding has an extraordinary voice, a fluttery, high vibrato, multi-tracked here to magical effect on compact pop songs of angst and romance
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  4. 8.0 |   God Is In The TV

    Ms Goulding certainly knows and holds the key to the much desired formula of 'How to write a perfectly satisfying pop song'
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  5. 6.8 |   Pitchfork

    At its best Lights feels remarkably uncontrived, cantering across genres, following personal whims and visions rather than marketing agendas
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  6. 6.8 |   Pitchfork

    At its best Lights feels remarkably uncontrived, cantering across genres, following personal whims and visions rather than marketing agendas
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  7. 6.0 |   PopMatters

    Six of the ten tracks are great collaborations, and the other four are not. As a result, Lights sounds incomplete and inconsistent, and doesn’t work as a whole
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  8. 6.0 |   The Observer

    The signifiers of pop quality are all here but Goulding's feathery voice makes everything sound a little inconsequential
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  9. 6.0 |   State

    With so much great music doing the rounds and so much potential, the Sound of 2010 simply shouldn’t be a middle of the road sound
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  10. 6.0 |   Evening Standard

    When it works, as on the thundering Guns and Horses, she sounds like a thrilling hybrid of Cerys Matthews and Kate Bush
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  11. 6.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    Ellie Goulding is a lost sheep, a girl who should be falling in and out of love whilst learning all she can from people like Feist, Regina Spektor and Joni Mitchell. Instead she is put in uncomfortable looking dresses and made to do dance routines
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  12. 6.0 |   The Independent

    The layers of vocal counterpoints in "Starry Eyed" confirm Goulding's singing ability, but it's debatable whether it's shown to best advantage here
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  13. 6.0 |   musicOMH

    Approaching Lights in the hope that you'll discover a brave new talent striking out against the blinkered Radio 1 playlist will prove fruitless. At its most prosaic ... it resembles Dido with a more four-to-the-floor backing
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  14. 6.0 |   NME

    You’d love to credit her with the alt.kudos of being a 21st century St Etienne, but she’s simply too eager to rub glittery shoulder-pads with Fergie out of Black Eyed Peas
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  15. 6.0 |   Rolling Stone

    There's darkness here. And lots of sex
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  16. 5.0 |   Consequence Of Sound

    Most of what makes Goulding’s work appealing, such as her voice and instrumentation, is lost underneath generic synthesizers that turn these songs into standard pop fare
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  17. 5.0 |   Independent on Sunday

    The Goulding I want to hear is one who's hidden herself away for a couple more years and come up with something 20 times as interesting as Lights
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  18. 4.0 |   Scotland on Sunday

    With the possible exception of Salt Skin it is all alarmingly insubstantial
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  19. 4.0 |   Sydney Morning Herald

    These are radio hits for the totalitarian at heart
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  20. 4.0 |   Mojo

    Print edition only

  21. 4.0 |   The Times

    ...this sort of craven playlist pandering holds up about as well as a soufflé in a snowstorm
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Ellie Goulding: Lights

  • Download full album for just £5.99
  • 1. Guns And Horses £0.99
  • 2. Starry Eyed £0.99
  • 3. This Love (Will Be Your Downfall) £0.99
  • 4. Under The Sheets £0.99
  • 5. The Writer £0.99
  • 6. Every Time You Go £0.99
  • 7. Wish I Stayed £0.99
  • 8. Your Biggest Mistake £0.99
  • 9. I'll Hold My Breath £0.99
  • 10. Salt Skin £0.99
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