Tag: Ellie Goulding

Tim: After mentioning Ellie yesterday I realised I wasn’t sure what she was up to right now; turns out she’s done the song for the new Bridget Jones film. (Very mild spoilers in the video, so you might want to stick it in a background tab if you’re planning on seeing it.)

Tim: And boy, is this a slow, slow build.

Tim: First verse and part of the chorus, I would have switched off with most other artists; it’s certainly unusual that just fingers clicking every second or so in the second verse will keep me listening. Then that build up through the second chorus, yes, yes, it’s happening! Except then middle eight does that two-step breakdown, and this is the fourth time we’ve had that but I still find it no less disconcerting.

Tim: Finally, though, three quarters of the way through the song, we’ve at last reached the point where we should have been two minutes ago. And it’s totally worth it.

Tim: Given the title, and the fact that it’s from the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack —

Tim: — you may well think that this song is basically all about the old you-know-what.

Tim: And yes, basically it is, but it’s bloody brilliant.

Tim: Writers include such pop royalty as Max Martin and Savan Kotecha (and let’s face it, if pop had a royal family they’d be battling it out for top place) and also Tove Lo and Ali Bayer, so it’s a good thing it is bloody brilliant, really, because otherwise we’d all be very upset.

Tim: It says a lot about Ellie’s voice that even though the massive BOOM into the second chorus (of which more later) doesn’t hit until two minutes in, the first half of the song is nowhere near as uninteresting in comparison than it might seem with a less talented vocalist.

Tim: Oh, I don’t deny that at all, but back to that BOOM, and that second chorus, and the final chorus with the strings in and the wait-for-it-patience-please pause before it, it’s just incredible, really, isn’t it?

Tim: I always thought it would take a lot for Anything Can Happen to be beaten, but then Burn came along and actually managed it, and I’m not sure if this quite hits Burn levels of brilliance, but it’s very very close.

Tim: Divergent, a film released last month. Beating Heart, the second single to come from the soundtrack. This, the lyric video because the clips from the film in it are a bit more interesting than the ones in the full video.

Tim: Oh, this is just the first of a trilogy. And this accompanying it is a very very good Ellie Goulding track. Slightly, um, interesting metaphors in the lyrics (departure lounge of disbelief, anyone?), but musically I don’t think I can really fault it.

Tim: I’m still a real sucker for her voice, and paired with that big (though admittedly not, by her standards, huge) chorus it sounds just wonderful.

Tim: Often when I write about a song I’ll just listen to it once or twice before thinking “right, that’s enough”; here I’m ion to my fifth listen already and it’s showing no signs of getting old whatsoever. It’s a great addition to the Goulding catalogue, and I reckon everyone involved should be proud of it.

Tim: Not remotely. Instead, Genuinely Nice Popstar Ellie has chosen yet another cut from the Halcyon album (or, more specifically, the Halcyon Days re-release), and, well, I do hope you like a bit of colour and excitement in your videos.

Tim: Good. Arguably, a large part of the success of her two most recent big hits, Burn and Anything Could Happen, – has been partly due to the repetitive in a good way and very good hooks – “and we’re gonna let it BURN burn burn” and repeat 5 times, “anything could happen” and “ooh, ooh, ooh, OOH oh” and repeat about a million times. This doesn’t have anything like that; instead it’s blessed with a wonderful chorus line and, in my mind, and even better pre-chorus.

Tim: Top it all off with her trademark slightly hoarse voice and great production and synth work, and whilst it probably won’t be such a massive smash as the recent two it clearly deserves to do well.

Tim: New track for you here, presumably from the soon to be re-released and embiggened Halcyon album. Annoying when artists do that, but that’s a gripe for another time. Here’s this.

Tim: Pretty good, no? Halcyon was, unfortunately, a tad disappointing – a couple of decent tracks on there, but largely filler. This, on the other hand, is a very good track indeed – a wonderful two part chorus, with the lovely melodic first half and the nicely aggressive second burn with the bells and synths and everything else coming in.

Tim: It was originally recorded by Leona Lewis a year ago, though never released in any form.

Tim: Not sure – I’m guessing it was recorded, then ditched as people weren’t entirely happy with the way it worked. Something about the deeper voice, perhaps, which doesn’t quite work for me like this does. Then it got leaked, as these things have a way of doing. It’s not a hugely different sound, really, lack of bells and different vocal style aside.

Tim: I prefer this – it has a nicer contrast between the singing and backing, resulting in what seems to be a more identifiable vocal. And that’s a nice thing, when the lyrics are about what they are about – “we got the fire, and we’re burning one hell of a something”.

Tim: I think you’ll find, if you put some effort in, that it’s actually quite simple.

Basically, she was in a car crash with her boyfriend, who ended up dying, and then she sort of did as well because she’s bleeding but we’re not really sure, but probably didn’t because firstly she’s singing and all that and secondly and mostly you can see in the shots where the crash happens that there’s one person in their car (and not in the seat where’s her boyfriend’s then lying dead) and no-one at all in the van it crashes into, which must have made for some careful post-mortal repositioning but also incredibly careless driving – of all the vans on all the beaches in all the world, he crashes into the one that’s entirely deserted – except then it’s alright because he comes back, still with loads of blood on him.

So it’s entirely comprehensible, just like that sentence was.

Tim: Are they sampling anything? Whether they are or not, that’s one of the loveliest post-choruses I’ve heard in a long time.

Tim: I’ve told you before, Tom: you’re an emotionless void.