Halcyon

Circularity of history

The history goes in cycles and steadily revives interest for the past long-forgotten great styles: the end of 90's gave us ska-revival, 00's began their march and died away under the melancholy of post-punk tunes. Well, the beginning of 21st century second decade with all its inexorable sequence presents us a child of post-punk – indie-pop. So either Ellie has such good friends-marketers or the girl has a natural musical instinct. On the wave crest of indie-pop and synth-pop popularity, with the multiplying number of hipsters, Ellie presented her debut album Lights. Released in March 2010, it conquered the British charts, and finished its struggle on a respectable sixth place in Irish ones. In 2011 she made her first concert in the U.S., and a little bit later she has been already performing at the Nobel prize awards in Oslo, and then at the ceremony in White House, Washington. The symbol of the new album chosen by the singer is halcyon that is how this notion can be translated from English. As explained by the singer herself, the halcyon is a bird that nests in severe weather near the stormy ocean and soothes it with its songs. Not a bad motivation for listening to the album, especially when cold, dark winter nights with their great winter depression are getting closer and closer. It is interesting what is prepared for us by a resident of Foggy Albion as a spiritual balm. Let's see.

Sorceress of Oz

Ellie with the first notes of the song takes us into a dark, viscous world, the abyss, from the depths of which, we can hear the light and carrying voice of Miss Goulding. But no, even taking into consideration that the voice is pleasant and melodious, it is a cry for help, unfortunately, directed into the void, gray mass, where everybody is too busy with their own problems to be distracted by a trivia. Even in spite of the fact that closer to the middle, the track speed picks up and relatively sprightly melody and broken rhythm are added, help is not coming. Afterfeel is quite heavy and dark, judging by style, the track strongly echoes with the instrumentation of another indie-pop band - Florence + the Machine. My Blood meets us with slow disco beat and extravagant, experimental vocals a la Lana Del Rey, but mainly with high notes. It is worth mentioning that the direction of indie style beautifully and seamlessly merges with many other musical trends in Halcyon: here we have voice licks, folk tunes, piano play in Regina Spektor's style and it is only concerning the song Anything Can Happen, then it is country-style guitar, bluesy piano and synth-pop rhythms in Only you, Figure 8 almost breaks into dubstep. While listening to the album the graduation of colors changes from dark and somber colors of the initial track to the bright and solemn ones at the end and peaks in the tracks such as Explosions and Dead in Water.

Halcyon, the cure for heart torments

Ellie Goulding has given us a very interesting and beautiful album and its main purpose is to give hope to all the downtrodden, humiliated and insulted ones. The album is a collection of well-treated and gathered together incompatible styles. Ellie's calm voice soothes and gives a feeling that in this world you are not alone, no matter how goes the situation now; in the future, there will be the one who understands you and accepts you for who you are. And the album in every way encourages us to fight and seek, to find and not to yield. Concerning the style, that is the successor of post-punk, the hope for bright and happy future, of course, is exotic. And part of this exotic Halcyon shares with us. This album is definitely advisable to those who are tired of sugary pop songs, and wants something less exaggeratedly optimistic, with a claim for intellectual and profound meaning. It is hard to imagine a party made with such kind of music, though there are some bonus dance songs on the longplay, such as disco track I Need Your Love or R'n'B style song Ritual. But these tunes are not the main ones in songs; they are here to complement the previously established sound. In Russia and some other countries, Ellie Goulding remains unjustly underrated singer; UK and the USA have been applauding to her for two years already. After listening to the album in addition to warm and light feelings and unbearable lightness, there is a hope that Ellie will continue to bring us joy with her creative works.