Ellie Goulding - Halcyon

This post will be really long. There's so many dang tracks across all versions of this album lol (Yes, this also includes the Halcyon Days tracks). I'm pretty indifferent to Ellie as I don't follow her music closely, but from what I have of her music it's pretty great.

The disc 1 and disc 2 sections reflects the tracklist of the US Halcyon Days deluxe release.

Disc 1

Track #1, Don't Say A Word: I like Ellie's sound. It's a very ethereal electropop thing. But sometimes it works better than other times. The overall sound of the song is really massive and a pleasure to listen to; however, it is so repetitive it's hard to get into. 3.5/5.

Track #2, My Blood: I originally ignored this song when I first got the CD in favor of other tracks like Figure 8 & Flashlight. When I came back to it after I got sick of other songs, I really fell in love with it. Her music really is gorgeous. I know she can't really sing, but her light voice really fits beautifully with this music style. The lyrics are stellar as well. 5/5.

Track #3, Anything Could Happen: I still think that this was a poor choice for a single. To me, it's one of the weakest tracks on the original album. Sure, it's one of the more radio friendly tracks, but it's not like it smashed as a single outside of a couple of countries. It also helped to set the stage for the lackluster reception of the other singles from the original album that wouldn't change until Burn was released. As a song, it's so annoyingly repetitive. There's nothing wrong with songs that are repetitive as they can be catchy, but Ellie's musical style & her vocals don't make for a good mix for extreme repetition. 3.5/5.

Track #4, Only You: Again, the music is so stunning. I'm not a huge fan of instrumentals, but I'd love to listen to a full instrumental album of Halcyon. It's such a sassy sounding song to. Even though it's a little repetitive, the tone of the song saves it from falling into Anything Could Happen territory. 4/5.

Track #5, Halcyon: I so love the word Halcyon. It's just too bad that my interest in the word doesn't mirror my interest in the song. It's kind of bland for me. Not even the pick up during the chorus helps. I think my main dislike of the song is how her voice is front and center in the verses as opposed to the music in other songs. She doesn't have the most pleasant sounding voice on the planet and without the music fully surrounding it, it's hard to listen to. 3/5.

Track #6, Figure 8: This is among my favorite songs of all time. Everything about this song is utterly fantastic. One credit I will give to Ellie's voice is how expressive it is. You feel every emotion her song's are trying to portray. She might not have the best voice, but it's very strong in that category. 5/5.

Track #7, Joy: This is such a polarizing song for me. I adore the chorus. It's so perfect and the pick up after the second one is awesome. The verses though...they're so slow and forgettable, which is sort of sad because you can feel the fragility in her voice in the verses. 4/5.

Track #8, Hanging On: I like to pretend that the version with the rapper doesn't exist. Which is why I'm glad that both versions are on the album so I don't have to listen to that one. Looking at the list of producers for her album, I notice that I've never heard of any of them. I bring that fact up because I'm wondering if anything else they've done is good like this album. Hanging On is one of the top tracks from the original album. The music itself is really the highlight of the song, and the entire album at that. 5/5.

Track #9, Explosions: I can't find anything special in this song to point out. It's very bland to me and even the music doesn't help to wake up the song. You'd think a song with the title of Explosions would have some crazy music going on. 3/5.

Track #10, I Know You Care: When I said about the album as a whole being pretty great, I forgot about this run of about 4 songs that are very lackluster compared to the rest of the album. Songs with hardly anything but a piano in the back do not work well for Ellie. Her breathing is really distracting in slower/less involved songs. 3/5.

Track #11, Atlantis: This is my second favorite Disney movie of all time! Shame it flopped haha. I can't think of anything but that movie when I see the word. The music of this song is really great, but the way she's singing makes it so difficult to understand what the lyrics are saying. At points it sounds like her voice is about to give out too. 3.5/5.

Track #12, Dead In The Water: This is probably the single least eventful song on the entire album. By the time it picks up slightly, it's too late to get your attention back. Especially because the pick up isn't explosive and just feels like an adlibbed version of the rest of it. 3/5.

Track #13, I Need Your Love: Technically a Calvin Harris featuring Ellie song, but whatever. It's definitely good that this is a bonus track because sonically it's so different from the rest of the album. I guess you could call Ellie's music more synthpop while this is pure EDM. Not that that's a bad thing of course. This type of music is my favorite so I really love this song. Or at least I did. I'm extremely sick of it now and I'd rather no listen to it in full again lol. 4/5.

Track #14, Ritual: Even though this song is really repetitive in the chorus, it's still a great song. The sound of the song with her voice reminds me a lot of something Little Mix might do if their style trended closer to synthpop. Probably the highlight of the original bonus tracks. 4.5/5.

Track #15, In My City: This song actually fits better with the style of music that she has for Halcyon Days instead of the original album. Which would explain why it is a bonus track. The original album is much more synthpop and the repackage is more EDM/radio friendly synthpop. This song skirts the line between the two. 3.5/5.

Track #16, Without Your Love: The music of this song is really blindsiding. It still has the synthpop of the rest of the album, but the African sounding drums are completely different than the rest of the songs. Personally, I don't like the mix of the drums with Ellie's style. If she would have one or the other it wouldn't sound so pieced together. 3/5.

Track #17, Hanging On (ft. Tinie Tempah): This just shouldn't exist. Blah.

Track #18, Lights: Yeah this was on her first album but I have the America version of the deluxe Halcyon Days so it's included. I won't review it though because of it's odd placement on the tracklist.

Disc 2

Track #1, Burn: The song that really seemed to put her career back on the map everywhere. It's certainly the most radio pop of the singles that she had put out by that point. I think it was a smart move on her label's part. Personally, even though I really enjoy the original Halcyon album because the music is very pretty, I would rather listen to an album of Burns on repeat because it's the type of music that I enjoy most. The original album is a wonderful listen, but it's not something that I would listen to over and over. It's more of a once in a while type of album. It's nice that her voice still works with more dance heavy songs because of how light her vocals are. 5/5.

Track #2, Goodness Gracious: This song is in the same style as Burn. It's not as catchy, but it's still a great track. Hearing the sound of Halcyon Days again makes me wonder what she'll go with for her third album. Will she stick with the more radio friendly pop or move back into what was happening with Halcyon. 4/5.

Track #3, You Are My Everything: This song is a pretty good mix between the Halcyon & Halcyon Days styles. For me, it's not one of the better ones on the album, but it's not bad. It actually sounds vaguely Vocaloid-ish to me with the music. Which is weird because I don't listen to Vocaloid so I don't understand why that comparison is in my head. 3.5/5.

Track #4, Hearts Without Chains: The lyrics almost sound like Figure 8 except from a different perspective. Unfortunately it's nowhere near as great as that song. When I listen to it, I expect a big explosive chorus and it doesn't come. 3.5/5.

Track #5, Stay Awake: Another song where her breathing is a little distracting. It's not the best of the more EDM tracks. I can't pick out anything special with the track. It just feels like a general mashup of most of the other songs. 3/5.

Track #6, Under Control: This song would have fit perfectly on the original Halcyon. In fact, if it had been on the original album, it would be my second favorite of the album. It's got such a catchy beat to it and the lyrics are nice as well. 5/5.

Track #7, Flashlight: This is the best track from Halcyon Days. I almost with that this was the single instead of Burn, although Burn was the best single choice. The tone of the song mixed with the music just makes the track perfect for me. 5/5.

Track #8, How Long Will I Love You: I'm glad that the ballads on the original album were mostly placing focus on the music instead of her vocals. This ballad is just boring. It's too typical of a pop ballad with none of the pretty synthpop to make it interesting. 3/5.

Track #9, Tessellate: By the end of this album I always get incredibly bored because of it's length. It doesn't help that three of my least favorite tracks are the very last ones too. I always expect this song to sound different than it does. I don't quite understand why there's sax in a minimalist track. Unless that's a thing. I really don't know to be honest. 3/5.

Track #10, Midas Touch: It doesn't feel like her vocals belong in this song. She sounds like she's singing to a completely different song than I'm hearing. It makes the song difficult to listen to. I'm guessing that the track was originally instrumental and they just decided to slap some random lyrics on it without adjusting anything to fit them. 3/5.

Really this version of the album is too long for it's own good. Both parts of the album are good to stand by themselves and really should as the styles are different between the two. If I had to choose, I would say Halcyon Days is my favorite of the two CDs. I love the music of the original Halcyon album, but it can be really tiring to listen to the whole thing in one sitting. 4/5.