A FOLLOW-UP REVIEW
★★★★★
Opinions can change over time, especially in terms of music. Music can grow old with time, as one song is overplayed to its death. (Yes, I'm looking at you, "Hey, Soul Sister," and "Moves Like Jagger"). On the other hand, some pieces of work can develop into so much more after listening to it repeatedly, and Ellie Goulding's Halcyon easily falls into this category.
Halcyon is most definitely an album that takes some time to get used to. The changes between Lights and this album were tremendous, and were apparently too much for me to handle when Halcyon was first released. However, now that I've been listening to it for months now, I can honestly say that Halcyon is the superior piece of work from Goulding.
I originally gave Goulding's sophomore album a three-out-of-five star rating, but recently, I've really had a change of heart and realized that it was time to bump that rating up to a perfect five-out-five. The overall production of the album became more and more impressive every time I listened to the album. In terms of production, my favorite songs have turned out to be "Hanging On," "Figure 8," "Only You," and "Anything Could Happen," while lyrically, "Explosions" takes the cake.
So, I"m not going to go too in-depth here, but I just wanted to make my change of heart clear. I went from being rather unimpressed by Halcyon to being proud to call it one of my favorite albums. Anybody who was giving the album a lukewarm review should really try revisiting it soon, because I know I haven't regretted it.
Completely agree! It took some getting used to for sure, as I bought the album right when it came out. The first listen through there were a few I loved right away (Only You, Anything Could Happen, Hanging On). Obviously some time has passed, and I find myself adding more and more of Halcyon songs onto that list. Recently: Ritual, Figure 8, Your Blood, Without Your Love, and even Halcyon itself. I've always believed great pieces of music take time to understand and to like, while simpler "catchy" songs grow annoying with time. This album is a completely different feel to Lights, but I think it was a step in the right direction for her as an artist.
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