[with apologies to Lykke. You've been supplanted. For the moment.]

Beyond the rampant ascent of dubstep, early 2009′s other major, more marketable trend seems to be coming in the form of a new breed of ultra-cute, female indie/electro-pop darlings. Think Little Boots, La Roux, Marina and the Diamonds and now the new entrant in the field Ellie Goulding.

She’s from London. She’s lovely. She has Twitter. She makes sweet, jaunty electro-pop that deftly avoids the saccharine while still possessing a bit of heft. She has a voice that borders on the chanteuse, but can still belt the hell out of a chorus. She provides an oddly suitable fit for these sunny but cold autumnal afternoons. She will make indie girls everywhere go ‘ahhhh, that’s nice’. Which is, for some reason, how I think indie girls talk. But enough of these declarative sentences. On with the music:

‘Starry Eyed’ is going to be her first release. It’s perfect anthemic pop with flecks of the 80s and surprisingly driving bass. With any luck we’ll see it at the end of the northern Summer, being released alongside an absolutely pounding dubstep remix by Jakwob (which you can hear over at his Myspace – the breakdown/build-up cycles are out of control).

Ellie Goulding – Starry Eyed

Also worth checking out are her lovely, stripped back cover of Sam Sparro’s in no way overplayed track ‘Black & Gold’, and the propulsive, soaring balladry of ‘Guns + Horses’. And now I’ve spent at least ten minutes searching for more synonyms to use but, whether through laziness or tiredness, my brain just keeps circling back in on the word ‘lovely’. Which actually I’m kinda OK with, because at a basic level, that’s all this is: lovely, warming music. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Ellie Goulding – Black & Gold

Ellie Goulding – Guns + Horses

/Luke