The 2012 Brit Awards - the winners

We don't like to blow our own trumpets at Bobbysix but, four years ago, we stated that a little-known singer from Tottenham called Adele had "the potential to be a truly remarkable artist." Four years ago! Well, her meteoric rise to megastardom continued this week when she took out Best British Female and Best British Album at the 2012 Brit Awards.

Mind you, how much faith can you put in the Brits, in terms of a yardstick of quality? Sure, Adele has talent, Blur deserve their pat on the back and Foo Fighters are worthy enough winners but, come on, Bruno Fucking Mars and One Direction? Far out.

The awards ceremony took place in London on Tuesday night and included performances from Coldplay (whose frontman Chris Martin later joined Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds on piano), Florence And The Machine and Rihanna. There were also video tributes to Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston.

The Winners: 
British Female Solo Artist - Adele
International Male Solo Artist - Bruno Mars 
British Single - One Direction: What Makes You Beautiful
International Female Solo Artist -  Rihanna
British Male Solo Artist - Ed Sheeran
British Group - Coldplay
International Group - Foo Fighters
British Breakthrough Act - Ed Sheeran
International Breakthrough Act - Lana Del Rey
Mastercard British Album Of The Year - Adele: 21
Critics' Choice Award - Emeli Sande
British Producer - Paul Epworth
Outstanding Contribution To Music - Blur

Ellie Goulding - Lights

Having won the Critics’ Choice Award at The Brit Awards and the coveted BBC Sound Of 2010 poll, it is little wonder that Ellie Goulding’s debut arrives under a hefty weight of expectation.

At the heart of Lights is a really promising songwriter. The album may land on the poppy side of folktronica, but there is emotional depth to Goulding’s themes. When you peel away the shimmering production, her vocal has a pleasingly elfin vulnerability to it; at times coming across like Julia Stone, elsewhere Bjork. Album-closer Salt Skin shows impressive invention with its mixture of electronica and a rousing choir in the chorus, opener Guns and Horses is a nice folk-pop introduction, while the breathless Wish I’d Stayed and the bold Under The Sheets give examples of her fine lyricism.

It’s a shame, then, that the overtly shiny production often makes things feel MOR, like The Writer, which buries a sweet ballad beneath radio-friendly cheese. Also, the fact that she is pulling in so many familiar directions makes Lights sound too much like the result of a record company’s mathematical equation: Florence divided by Laura Marling multiplied by La Roux plus Little Boots equals a new unit-shifting superstar. For a debut, Lights is more than decent, but something simply doesn’t ring true about its more poptastic parts. It leaves one wondering what Ellie Goulding would sound like were she not accompanied by the bells and whistles of the hype machine. One senses things would have been edgier and therefore a bit more satisfying. And therein lies the problem with the mainstream lauding an artist so highly at such an early stage in their career.

Review by Rob Townsend

Florence and the Machine - Lungs

Florence and the Machine is the name on everyone’s lips in the UK at the moment. Florence Welch - to use her real name - won the Critic’s Choice award at this year’s Brit Awards before she had even released an album, she is already a style icon as comfortable on the pages of fashion glossies as in the NME, and Lungs was recently nominated for the much-coveted Mercury Music Prize. The burning issue, of course, amid such hype and fanfare, is whether her debut long-player is actually any good.

Lungs is certainly ambitious in its indie/pop/soul sound, with piano, strings, harps, handclaps and massive drums, but it is Welch’s voice that is the most impressive instrument, jumping seamlessly from a sultry whisper to an awesome, lung-busting chorus and back again. Radio favourite, Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up), is the best example of her stunning vocal. Her delivery at the crescendo of this unapologetically grand pop anthem doesn’t so much ask for your attention as pick you up and fling you across the room. It’s thrilling stuff and indicative of the album’s multilayered barrage of sound.

Elsewhere, her voice floats over delicate harp on I’m Not Calling You a Liar, while Cosmic Love is a bit Bat For Lashes and Kiss With A Fist offers bouncy White Stripes blues. Wrapping up with a cover of The Source’s You’ve Got The Love, this album’s inventive juxtaposition of dark, gothic lyrics and rousing tunes blows away any burden of expectation with a flourish. Happily, Lungs is unquestionably worthy of the hype.

Review by Rob Townsend