Why don't you be the writer and decide the words I say?

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts.

07/03/10 : Lights - Ellie Goulding

Our third visit with Ellie over the years - and so far none of her albums have delivered the kinda stuff of hers that I thought I liked.  Is this going to be the one that does?  I'll be honest - my expectations aren't high becase I think it's the next one that delivers the goods, but let's see.

Oh no - I'm totally wrong.  It's this one with "Starry Eyed", "Under The Sheets" and "The Writer" - three of the first five tracks which totally rock.  Yes, her voice is totally wrangled beyond belief but it's been wrangled to sound wrangled which works well.  The rest of it isn't quite so memorable - but hey, who cares?  I'm amazed I've not heard more covers of "The Writer" - it's actually a really well put together song.

We're at #1 with a new entry this week - on the start of a somewhat impressive 33 week run.  After which it went away for three weeks and then came back for an somewhat more impressive 48 week run, including six weeks in the top ten, which is five more than it managed on the previous run.  The rest of the top five were Gaga, Alicia, Glee and Florence - that's a strong top five for the ladies and no mistake.  The next highest new entry was Jason Derulo (#8) - we're yet to see the man (and I'm fine without seeing him tbh) and the next highest one is John Barrowman (#11 - and I'd much rather listen to that than Jason Derulo, even though I'm sure it's still terrible).

Wikipedia has way more than I was expecting (237 milliPeppers) and points out the album is interesting because the original version doesn't feature the single "Lights" - although it was on Bright Lights, which was the same album re-released in November with seven more tracks (also including her version of Elton's "Your Song" which is surprisingly undreadful) which explains its second run in the charts.  It also has some amusingly young-looking pictures of Ellie - obviously I looked exactly the same thirteen years ago.

The critics were pretty mixed on the album, but the negative comments feel somewhat dated with hindsight - there's nothing here to be that down about (and there are plenty of albums they were nice about at the time that are heinous).  It also tells me that part of the reason for the albums reappearance in the charts was her performance at William and Kate's wedding - I'm guessing that would impress a certain section of the market.  And it did surprisingly well in the US as well getting to #21, but I'm guessing the royal connection might not have hurt matters here either - we must remember this was before William was the good/bad* brother (* delete as appropriate).

"Customers also listened to" Tove Lo, Lorde, Demi Lovato and Katy Perry - some of which are closer to Ellie than others.  But it's only Ellie that's really like Ellie though, isn't it?   From what I've heard, this is the best Ellie offering out there, but Halcyon is also worth checking out - we'll get to hear that whenever we get to 2013.

28/02/10 - I've always liked this one
14/03/10 - One I remember liking, but nothing more

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