These albums are all about voices and what they can do and Ellie Goulding, Melody Gardot and Bridgit Mendler are among those born with really great pipes. They are also all competent songwriters but it is their voices that really grab attention. And not just their remarkable tones or range, it is also in the way they sing, in the way these vocals are set in unexpected arrangements which are totally unlike any that we hear anywhere these days.
In media power, these girls are not yet Beyoncé or J.Lo or Taylor, but here are three albums I am sure you will enjoy listening to again and again. And if you do not like the songs they make, you will still surely admire them all for daring to be themselves, although it would mean being dubbed, different.
Halcyon by Ellie Goulding. Part-trance, part-electro, part-emo, part-pop rock and lots of other sounds, the unique music of Ellie shocked, mesmerized and brought the UK to its knees two years ago. Her album Lights became one of the fasting-selling debuts in British pop music history. She made four hit singles, Guns and Roses, Starry Eyed, The Writer and Under The Sheets. Halcyon is her second effort. I think this CD is perhaps what would happen if you mix Sarah Brightman with Coldplay and The Corrs, with a sprinkling of Enya.
Best tracks in their totality are Explosions and I Know You Care. Love her voice with the piano. These are big songs that show off Ellie’s outstanding vocals and songwriting skills. The most commercial cuts with their strong hooks are My Blood and Anything Could Happen. But you really have to listen to the whole album to really appreciate what this girl can do.
Also included are Don’t Say A Word, Only You, Halcyon, Figure 8, Joy, Hanging On, Atlantis, Dead In The Water and bonus tracks, I Need Your Love by Calvin Harris featuring Ellie, Ritual, In My City, Without Your Love, another version of Hanging On featuring Tinie Tempar, and the single version of the title track from her breakthrough album Lights.
The Absence by Melody Gardot. Melody is her real name and she sings jazz. But if you are among those who think you have already heard all that jazz can do, she gives you another think or two. Melody’s jazz is part-American mainstream, part-Brazil boss nova and a mix of middle-eastern and African influences. I read that she did go on a round-the-world trip before she began work on this album and I must say she made use of all those sounds she heard for the new songs in this CD.
Things got more exotic with her choice of producer. The obviously adventurous Melody chose the great guitarist Hector Pereira who plays for Sting and Seal. The partnership resulted in an exotic package where she plays with whispery bossa vocals, Impossible Love, scats, If I Tell You I Love You, and plainly sings jazz. She is absolutely breathtaking in So We Meet Again My Heartache and sunshiny in Iemanja with its Portuguese lyrics and tenderly beautiful in Se Voce Me Ama. The other songs are Mira, Amalis, So Long, Lisboa, Goodbye and My Heart Won’t Have It Any Other Way.
Hello My Name Is…by Bridgit Mendler. She is a Disney Princess. The 19-year-old beauty was the star of the movie Lemonade Mouth from two years ago, which has a fantastic big-selling soundtrack. She is also in the TV series Good Luck Charlie. Given that sort of pedigree, it will not be wrong for anybody to expect Bridgit to sound like Miley Cyrus or Demi Lovato or Selena Gomez but she does not. She has her own pop sound that comes across as a mixture of other types.
Initially, it seemed like she took bits of music here and there and then tossed them together to create a pop salad. But lucky girl, her mixture works. Carly Rae Jepsen and Jessie J are closest pegs I can think of but the result is more substantial. And matching those soulful vocals is a prodigious talent for songwriting. Every song makes delightful sense. I do not know how she will measure up as a Disney Princess but musically, she is better than any of her predecessors.
Radio should love The Fall Song and Love Will Tell Us Where To Go. Ready Or Not, Hurricane, Rocks At My Window and the syncopated Blonde are the fun tracks. Also included are Forgot To Laugh, Top of The World, City Lights, All I See Is Gold, Hold On For Dear Love and the one I like best, the jazzy 5:15.