I’ve been following the happenings and progress of Ellie Goulding for some time now, watching her go from a young girl from Hereford with a head full of modest songs to pop-princess stardom of which the likes of Little Boots and various others have achieved in a relatively short time.

Produced by 21-year-old Starsmith, AKA Fin Dow-Smith, a Surrey University grad, he worked with Goulding over the last year to inject a bit of pop electro into things. And it’s quite a move from the original tracks I heard all those months ago. This is definite a commercial album, but it seems to have a little more soul and passion than most. Plus, this girl can actually sing, which is always good in today’s sea of auto tune.

Goulding has had a fair wack of success so far, with the first single Under The Sheets creating waves in the music world, and she even got chosen for the BRITs Critics Choice, and put on any ‘Top 10 of 2010′ list you can think of.

One of the nice things about this album is the mix of delicate electronics elements, like interesting vocal looping and reversing, shifting between down tempo verses to big, dance lead choruses, all backed up by Ellies huge vocal range, which she makes full use of

Wish I Stayed was one of my favourite tracks from the original EP, and although it has been re-recorded for the album, I still prefer the original, as the whistles-and-bells version seems to draw away from the tender, low key feel of the original recording. The album is a good mix of the big singles like Starry Eyed, to the heart-felt The Writer, which has a killer intro. The only criticisms I could make on this album would be that they do start to sound very similar, in terms of song structure, but if they’ve got a system going on, then why change things up?

Watch out for Fins debut-solo album, coming out in the next year, which is sure to feature some great electro numbers.

The single, Starry Eyed, is out through the various places now.

By Mark Allen