Description
Ellie Goulding's debut album, Lights, made thrillingly clear that Goulding uses her voice as a texture in much the same way that a skilled instrumentalist would. It is, in other words, a sound — in Ellie's case, an utterly distinctive and unforgettable one — that can play as important a role in her songs as any other musical detail. Cascading, dovetailing, soaring, swooping, Ellie's layered vocal parts bring a haunting complexity to songs that often come from relatively uncomplicated origins: Observations, memories and emotions that trigger a melody, a lyric, bare bones around which Ellie will then build musical and verbal narratives that are at once ornate and austere, passionate and enigmatic
"Shimmering" — Billboard
