Dove Ellis Blizzard
Dove Ellis's Blizzard announces a debut that privileges small domestic details and towering vocal moments, and across professional reviews it emerges as a quietly thrilling record. Critics consistently point to the album's intimacy and instrumental adventurousness, with songs such as “Love Is”, “Pale Song”, “Jaundice”, “To The Sandals” and “Little Left Hope” repeatedly named among the best tracks on Blizzard. The collection balances fragile-to-powerful vocals against spare, often folky arrangements that mix Celtic inflections, chiming guitars and occasional winds or sax to create a sense of wintered nostalgia and lyrical precision.
The critical consensus is favorable: Blizzard earned an 86.43/100 consensus score across 7 professional reviews, with reviewers praising Ellis's vocal virtuosity and intimate production while noting moments that feel more like sketches than finished epics. Reviewers agree that “Love Is” functions as the record's emotional fulcrum, “Pale Song” and “Little Left Hope” showcase his falsetto and poetic lyricism, and “Jaundice” and “To The Sandals” point to bolder instrumental experimentation. Critics consistently invoke comparisons to Jeff Buckley and Van Morrison when describing Ellis's tremor-edged croon, lending context to his blend of yearning and release.
While some reviewers flag a slightly uneven second half and the presence of unfinished sketches, the prevailing view among music critics is that Blizzard is a promising, emotionally compelling debut that rewards close listening. The record stakes a distinct claim in Ellis's catalog as a collection where intimacy, mythic lyricism and genre fusion coalesce into standout moments that many critics call essential.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Love Is
7 mentions
"In the singalong-friendly Love Is, he roars, "Love is not the antidote to all your problems,""— The Guardian
Jaundice
7 mentions
"In Jaundice he uses the unlikely vehicle of rumbustious rock’n’roll infused with an Irish jig"— The Guardian
Little Left Hope
7 mentions
"Beautiful opener Little Left Hope begins as fragile as Nick Drake, but erupts into something much more rousing"— The Guardian
In the singalong-friendly Love Is, he roars, "Love is not the antidote to all your problems,"
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Little Left Hope
Pale Song
Love Is
When You Tie Your Hair Up
Jaundice
Heaven Has No Wings
It Is A Blizzard
Feathers, Cash
To The Sandals
Away You Stride
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 7 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
In a voice that privileges the small and tangible, Dove Ellis's Blizzard finds its strongest moments in songs like “Love Is” and “When You Tie Your Hair Up”. The record makes a virtue of domestic detail - the snow pooling around your shoes and the hair brushed from a lover's face - turning those images into the album's best tracks. Ellis's fragile-yet-immediate delivery and spare production let hooks in “Love Is” and the wrenching repetition of “When You Tie Your Hair Up” register as the emotional high points. For listeners asking what the best songs on Blizzard are, those two tracks consistently return as the record's most affecting moments, backed by the keening of “Pale Song” and the jaunty bite of “Jaundice” as worthy runners-up.
Key Points
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The best song is "When You Tie Your Hair Up" because its domestic detail plus build-and-fall arrangement yields the album's most cathartic moment.
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The album's core strength is converting Romantic yearning into tangible, intimate images delivered with immediate production and a singular vocal presence.
Themes
Critic's Take
In a voice that privileges whisper over proclamation, Dove Ellis’s Blizzard stakes its claim with intimate, nature-soaked songs. The review savours the best tracks - “To The Sandals”, “Pale Song” and “Love Is” - for their fragile detail, chiming guitars, and manifest mantras that lift into ache. The critic’s tone is affectionate and granular, celebrating how these songs make Ellis’ fragile voice and precise arrangements feel like small miracles. Ultimately the best tracks on Blizzard are those that translate private tremors into communal feeling, balancing warmth and lament with uncanny poise.
Key Points
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The best song is 'To The Sandals' because its ghostly, winter-bruised tenderness and chiming arrangements crystallize Ellis’ strengths.
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The album’s core strengths are intimate, nature-infused imagery and delicate songwriting that balance warmth and lament with clear emotional architecture.
Themes
Critic's Take
Across Blizzard Dove Ellis feels like an artist discovering a set of rules to break, and his best tracks - notably “To The Sandals” and “Love Is” - show why. Sophie Flint Vázquez leans into his tremor-edged croon as an instrument, highlighting how “To The Sandals” blurs voice and sax, while “Love Is” strips back to minimalist guitar and drums so every crack in his delivery counts. The record thrives in extremes, from the Celtic-tinged swing of “Jaundice” to the delicate flutes of “Little Left Hope”, even if some songs feel like sketches rather than finished statements. It is, ultimately, a promising debut that signals bigger, more disruptive work to come.
Key Points
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The best song, “To The Sandals”, stands out because Ellis’s voice is used as an instrument, blending with sax to create a unique texture.
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The album’s core strengths are its vocal-forward delivery and bold fusion of post-punk, ambient drift, pop directness, and Celtic touches.
Themes
Critic's Take
Dove Ellis sounds like an old soul on Blizzard, his voice filling rooms so small they feel cathedralic. The review singles out “Little Left Hope” and “When You Tie Your Hair Up” as moments where his voice becomes a ghostly choir and a soul-baring roar respectively, which makes them the best tracks on Blizzard for sheer vocal spectacle. At the same time the record rewards close listening with poetic lines in “Love Is”, proving the best songs on Blizzard marry lyricism to startling vocal control. The album is mostly solid guitar songs, but flashes on “Jaundice” and “To The Sandals” hint at bigger experiments to come.
Key Points
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The best song is a vocal showcase, with “Little Left Hope” expanding Ellis’s voice into a ghostly choir.
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The album’s core strengths are a generational voice, poetic lyricism and occasional instrumental experimentation.
Themes
Critic's Take
In his quietly startling debut Blizzard, Dove Ellis finds his strengths in songs like “Little Left Hope” and “When You Tie Your Hair Up”, where his fragile falsetto can turn at any moment into raw intensity. The review savours the way “Pale Song” and “Love Is” balance hope and despair, and how “To The Sandals” benefits from Andrew Sarlo’s sprucing. Ellis’s lyrics are repeatedly praised for dazzling language and the record’s intimate, unadorned production makes the ten tunes feel like old friends. For listeners searching for the best tracks on Blizzard, the review points squarely to “Little Left Hope”, “Pale Song” and “When You Tie Your Hair Up” as highlights that encapsulate the album’s mix of tenderness and sudden force.
Key Points
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The best song, "Little Left Hope", is best for its fragile opening that explodes into rousing intensity and vivid lyrics.
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The album’s core strengths are Dove Ellis’s dazzling language, shifting vocal dynamics, and intimate, unadorned production.
Themes
Critic's Take
On Blizzard Dove Ellis shows why the best tracks on the album - especially “Pale Song” and “Love Is” - feel like instant standouts, his falsetto soaring over expansive arrangements. The record trades the fuzz of his demo mixtapes for a proper mix that lets his soulful voice and intimate plucking breathe, which is why listeners seeking the best songs on Blizzard will find themselves returning to “Pale Song” and the triumphant “Love Is”. While the second half leans into samey balladry, the opening sequence radiates momentum and makes a compelling case for these tracks as the album's highlights.
Key Points
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The best song(s) stand out because Ellis’s falsetto soars over larger-than-life arrangements, especially on "Pale Song" and "Love Is".
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Blizzard’s core strengths are intimate production, vocal virtuosity, and a melding of folk and Americana traditions.
Themes
Critic's Take
With a voice that channels Van Morrison and Jeff Buckley, Dove Ellis’s debut Blizzard stakes its claim with intimate, expansive songs. The best tracks on Blizzard include “Little Left Hope”, which opens as a comforting, intricate introduction, and the jubilant “Jaundice”, an infectious standout with dance-worthy accordion. The raw acoustic closer “Away You Stride” crystallizes Ellis’s lyricism and vocal luminosity, making these songs the clearest examples of why listeners will call this one of the year’s discoveries.
Key Points
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Jaundice is the best song because its upbeat drums and accordion make it infectious and memorable.
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The album’s core strengths are Dove Ellis’s luminous voice, dense instrumentation, and the balance of intimacy and expansiveness.