Best Music 2011: Ellie Goulding Picks Her Favorite Album Of The Year

Robbie Daw | December 12, 2011 9:24 am

Earlier this month, we kicked off our Best Music 2011 series with soul punk Patrick Stump, who chose Paul Simon’s So Beautiful Or So What as his favorite album of 2011. (And the Chicago artist wasn’t the only one smitten with folk rock legend Simon’s return — Rolling Stone ranked So Beautiful Or So What at #3 on the publication’s own year-end roundup of albums.)

Next we sat down with Ellie Goulding, who chose an album by a band from her home country of England as her favorite this year. You no doubt caught Ellie’s mesmerizing Saturday Night Live performance in the spring, if not her gigs at Coachella and Lollapalooza, or her opening slot on Katy Perry’s California Dreams Tour. Now head below to watch her describe the LP she found to be the most listenable in 2011.

Ellie’s favorite album of the year is Smother, the third LP from Wild Beasts. “They’re from up north in the UK,” Goulding explains. “There’s two frontmen, and they have these amazing voices. But they’re so different, they compliment each other.”

Of course, fans of Lady Gaga are likely familiar with Wild Beasts, as the band’s remix of Mother Monster’s summer hit “You And I” appears on the just-released Born This Way: The Remix compilation. (You can give the entrancing mix a spin here.)

Ellie tells us that she loves the psychedelic, beautiful songs that appear on Wild Beasts’ Smother. And that makes sense, given the synth-washed, dreamy pop that appears on this starry-eyed singer‘s own album Lights.

Ellie Goulding’s Lights is out now on Interscope/Cherrytree. Purchase it at eMusic.