(Single from album, “Halcyon”)
Oh god...that was the first thought I had when I saw that the new Ellie Goulding song had debuted at #5. I thought again. If it was really bad it would have come straight in at #1...so I gave it a chance...
This song is awesome. I now listen to it at maximum volume just out of principle, even if YouTube's distorted 2 kbps sound does hurt my ears a little...
The vocoder bleeps of Goulding's voice atmospherically launch the track at your face. It's a very electronic, dance sound, from the start. Then the fat synth beats stride in and, and with thick piano slammed in behind, and an in-between techno snare, this song immediately sets itself apart from the rest of the UK's electronic music by sounding technically accomplished and, thankfully, like 1986 threw up and the spill landed in last week's chart listings. Speaking of which, the first verse contains a lovely little reference to said year, just before the slightly betraying chorus starts up; over synthesised and laden with shoddy, plastic sounding string arrangements, it begins to flash back a little to auto-tuned wonders Cheryl Cole, JLS, and of course, our good friend Justin Bieber...
Having said this, its still quite a good song for an artist as mainstream as Ellie Goulding. "Starry Eyed" annoyed me quite a bit, "Wonderman" had Tinie Tempah being a tit at the start, middle and end of it, and "Your Song" was a cover. However, despite the fact that her voice was always a bit different, but quite interesting at the same time, this is the first really impressive effort from one chart music's few talented golden girls.
The bridge is equally striking, and it's at times like these that you don't mind the auto-tuning on Goulding's bizarre and strangely annunciated tone, similar to that of Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks in his husky, strained but still amazingly soft quality. At this point in the song, the production values really shine and the keyboards glimmer like a shining mainstream musical beacon, representing the perfect evolution of dance music from the early days of the Haçienda, and 12" disco mixes to the digital age, and the new frontier of music.
The video is hopelessly naff. Plus, Goulding has nicked Skrillex's haircut; I know they're going out, but was that quite necessary? It did however prompt me to search the song up on Wikipedia to see if he was involved, given the incredible sound and clarity of the mixing.
He wasn't. 'Allegedly'. I'm not convinced.
★★★★
Versions of "Anything Could Happen"
Album/Single Version - 3:46
Birdy Nam Nam Remix - 4:01
Submerse Remix - 5:02