Society always celebrates the records that top the Billboard 200 album chart. Back of The Billboards is a Music Times weekly segment that looks at the opposite end: the new record that finished closest to the back of the Billboard 200 for the previous week. We hope to give a fighting chance to the bands you haven't heard of.
Week of 12/20/2013
WHO: Ellie Goulding
WHAT: iTunes Session
SPOT: 190
WHY?: Ellie Goulding hardly needs any more promotion on our part, but she does deserve from another angle. Fellow British pop star Adele often appears unadorned by complex instrumentals thanks to the sheer power of her voice. Goulding is far from under-qualified as a vocalist, but listeners are most familiar with her breathy voice appearing alongside electro-pop instrumentals. Such a voice could work just as well by itself if given the chance, and the iTunes Session EP is that chance.
This album is far from "unplugged" per se. There's the occasional guitar solo, and even an electric beat on "Burn," but most is stripped back to leave Goulding room to perform. The vocalist noted that she recorded the six tracks sans an instrumental track to promote a more honest performance. Her versions aren't dramatically different from the original recordings on most tracks, but the scaled-back instrumentals leave Goulding open for attack, but the pop star proves she doesn't need an electro-beat to hold her up.
Closing number "Lights" is most worthy of a listen, not only because it's the songstress's most popular number, but also because it takes the most alternate route from its original version. Goulding takes the nightclub number and nearly converts it into a ballad.
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