“Sufjanny”: about 71 results (0.18 seconds)…
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[4.62]
Jonathan Bogart: When your best feature is the texture of your voice, what you really want to do is smush it flat into a bunch of undifferentiated synth blasts.
[5]
Crystal Leww: Ellie Goulding has a thin voice, and there’s nothing wrong with that when it’s produced correctly. Starsmith really knew how to cater to her voice in “Lights,” but she mostly uses different people now, including the now superstar producer Greg Kurstin. “Burn” wants Goulding to do a lot, but realizes that it can’t and resorts to vocal tricks instead. The result is this overproduced mess which twists and turns and leaves very little. Finally, when will Ryan Tedder end his reign of the most elementary and saccharine writing?
[5]
Will Adams: EDM remixes have played an important role in Ellie’s popularity, so it’s not unwise that Halcyon Days will take this tack — Madeon, DJ Fresh, and Burns are among the collaborations on the reissue. “Burn” isn’t a DJ collab; instead it’s helmed by Ryan Tedder and Greg Kurstin, and it shows. The build-drop structure is all in place, but the hook — a bunch of minimally pitch-shifted repetitions of the title — sinks the euphoria. Elsewhere, “Burn” suffers from tired party platitudes that hit a low with Ellie’s awkward spitballing of “acting crazy and getting loco.” The irony, of course, is that all this talk of setting it on fire comes with a tepid track that sounds too scared to become a full-on drum ‘n’ bass banger.
[5]
Iain Mew: It’s weird how between this and “Your Song”, Ellie’s two biggest UK hits have both been singles ahead of album re-releases that might as well be almost anyone. It seems her career sounding like Ellie Goulding can only take her so far by itself, but can get her to be a familiar enough name to make her a go-to safe option for safe options. Of the two, unconvincingly impassioned dance pop is better than John Lewis ad covers, but it’s still a carefully crafted personality vacuum.
[4]
Alfred Soto: The electronic accents palliate the sourness of a Leona Lewis castoff, and it’s cruel how exposed Goulding’s limitations sound on the chorus. The muffled percussion gives the game away.
[6]
Scott Mildenhall: Leona Lewis will be kicking herself. Avicii couldn’t relaunch her for her third album, nor could Emeli Sand and Naughty Boy a year later (and whatever happened to those three anyway?) There was also a song called “Burn“, but it didn’t make the cut; perhaps too watery for her full-bodied vocals, or in need of a vocalist with more character. Maybe to be saved for the cash-in repackage? If only there were one. There is an Ellie Goulding one though, and that’s where it ended up, as well as the UK number one spot. This year, Leona Lewis will be releasing a Christmas album.
[6]
Brad Shoup: It’s cheap points to note that a song with this title stays cool throughout. Better, I think, to rag on the conceit: we need new metaphors. This is before-previews movie theater music, a lonely song pretending otherwise. There’s something Sufjanny in the pre-chorus melody, though, as Goulding skates between tones with reverence. But it just isn’t worth putting up with those fucking skips and fake vinyl slowdowns.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: “Ryan Tedder is an improvement over Starsmith” — someone?
[2]