Ellie Goulding
Thekla, Bristol
25/03/2010

The various hype machinery of the musical world has been turned on, cranked up and left on full power recently concerning the young Ms. Goulding. Previous whisperings in the blogosphere have turned into full on, red faced drunken shouting in the last six months, with awards and countless articles all being emblazoned with her name. 
Unfortunately, any machine left cranked up for an extended period of time tends to overheat; cynics can tire of your preordained success before they even clap eyes on you. The only way to dispel this attitude is to literally blow peoples’ legs off with your live show, so it is with anticipation mixed with trepidation that The Fly ventures to the good ship Thekla for the first of Ellie’s UK tour dates tonight.

Support comes in the flavour of Primary 1, sporting a not displeasing blend of electro pop, funk and slightly Bowie-alike vocals. Nice. Ellie Goulding eventually takes the stage after a long changeover and a few technical hitches, and she seems slightly nervous in front of the sold out crowd.  Are we really all there to see her? However, she really puts heart and soul into her singing, and if anything her voice sounds better live; the trill style which sounds slightly contrived on records is perfectly natural tonight. Every note is pitch perfect, and her delivery has a sexually charged nature that the male populace of the crowd no doubt notice…

Unfortunately, her songs themselves don’t seem to translate so well to the live stage. The electro-folk sound seems a bit spiritless and lacks punch, and the crowd are relatively uninvolved and unmoving thoughout the whole show, even when Goulding plays hits ‘Under The Sheets’ and ‘Starry Eyed’. A cover of Midlake’s ‘Roscoe’ is misjudged and lacks the original’s understated beauty. If anything, it is the more ballad like ‘The Writer’ that seems to suit her better, but that kind of thing would never have got her noticed. The set does admirably contain every song from her album ‘Lights’, and her voice is perfect throughout, but the music she has fashioned with Starsmith is definitely best served on a branded portable music player of your choice.

George Rowe