Album: Ellie Goulding, Lights (Polydor)

If Goulding looked a little awkward as she stepped up to receive the Critics' Choice award at The Brits, it's perhaps because the Herefordshire lass knew that she wasn't ready for it.

Don't be fooled by her peculiar faux-foreign diction: she's more of a Dido than a Björk. The Goulding I want to hear is one who's hidden herself away for a couple more years and come up with something 20 times as interesting as Lights. But she's already been rewarded with a Brit, so we're probably stuck with the Goulding we've got.