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Oct 8, 2012An ambitious work by an artist intent on developing her total sound, Halcyon finds Goulding poised at the edge of artistic and career possibilities.
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Oct 24, 2012Goulding can certainly inhabit a soundscape. Her next step is to inhabit just one.
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UncutOct 8, 2012With its mix of electric piano and harp, gospel choir, distorted bass and rap, Halcyon seems uncertain where it belongs--low-lit lounge or heaving club. [Nov 2012, p.75]
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Oct 9, 2012The outcome is a bit flawed and a very loud version of her biggest and smallest self.
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MojoOct 22, 2012There is improvement in the songwriting....But halfway through you might well weary at the album's unrelenting, full-bodied tone. [Nov 2012, p.91]
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Q MagazineOct 22, 2012Halcyon casts a formidable spell. [Nov 2012, p.96]
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Oct 8, 2012Mainly, Halcyon sees Goulding's quirky-as-usual vocals lazily spliced into factory-standard chart dance.
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Oct 9, 2012If the songwriting doesn't quite measure up to U.K. art-pop divas like Kate Bush, the hooks always go to town, and her voice – Dolly Parton-dazzling in the upper register – mates gorgeously with electronics.
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Oct 5, 2012The main flaw of Halcyon is that it occasionally feels a bit too much.
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Oct 9, 2012In today's era of pop, where computers find the soul for winning contestants, it's hard to scoff at Goulding, whose sole problem on her record is being too emotionally redundant.
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Oct 5, 2012Halcyon could have gone for easy crossovers. But the album is slightly too weird for that--and that's what makes it good.
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Oct 5, 2012It's a well-crafted, stylish piece of work. But it's hard to love songs that try to hide.
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Oct 12, 2012What scuppers Halcyon, though, is the sense that Ellie's still not nailed down her own identity. There's just too much bombast, and the magpie-like-production and big, booming arrangements swaddle rather than swathe her vocals.
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Oct 9, 2012On Halcyon she marries thoughtful ruminations on young love to whooshing synth riffs and hard-edged machine beats; the album claims electronic dance music as the natural province of sensitive singer-songwriters.
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Oct 5, 2012Her second album, however, belatedly delivers on all Goulding's latent promise.
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Oct 8, 2012She makes a half-decent dance diva on "I Need Your Love", but I'd ask whether that doesn't defeat the object of being Ellie Goulding, though I still don't know what that object is.
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Oct 5, 2012Halcyon is a bold and confident step forward.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 272 out of 300
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Mixed: 11 out of 300
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Negative: 17 out of 300
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Oct 10, 2012
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Oct 9, 2012
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Oct 9, 2012