Review: Ellie Goulding – Delirium

Ellie Goulding, born in England in 1986, was discovered in a songwriting competition while attending university. She signed to management as a result and in 2009 released her first EP, An Introduction To Ellie Goulding. An avid runner, Goulding often uses her healthy hobby as a means of contributing to charitable events. In support of her second EP, Run Into The Light, Ellie invited a small number of fans to run with her in different cities throughout her tour. Reported to be friends with a number of pop stars, including Lorde and Katy Perry, Goulding does more than hang out with her fellow musicians. She has done two tours with American folk singer Lissie and appears in Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood music video.

Winner of two Brit Awards, the Critic’s Choice and Best Female Solo Artist, as well as the BBC Sound of 2010 Award, Goulding was also named Cosmopolitan’s Ultimate Music Star. In 2015, she has been on the ballot of nearly every awards ceremony in the business thanks to her breakout song, Love Me Like You Do, which was featured in the movie 50 Shades of Grey. Yet, despite her professional accomplishments and famous friends, perhaps Goulding is best known for her performance at Prince William’s wedding reception in Buckingham Palace.

Prior to releasing Delirium, Ellie Goulding had two commercially successful studio albums, Bright Lights and Halcyon Days. Goulding’s third studio album, Delirium, was officially released on November 6, 2015, but we have been hearing songs from this LP for a while now. The 50 Shades inspired video for the song Love Me Like You Do was released in January and the single was streamed 2.58 million times, setting a record for most-streamed track in a single week in the UK. In September, Goulding released the album’s first official single, On My Mind, followed in October by Something In The Way You Move as a promotional single, and Army, which was written about her best friend Hannah, as the second official single. The single Outside, which also appeared on Calvin Harris’ latest album, dates back to October of last year. Yet, with a total of 22 tracks there is still plenty to discover on her album.

Sticking with personal fashion, Goulding has once again enlisted the help of a multitude of producers. With over a dozen production credits to the album, some names, such as Greg Kurstin, will be familiar to her fans, while others, like Max Martin, may be more noteworthy to those who follow the business. Martin has been involved in the writing of 21 US number one hits including Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl, Maroon 5’s One More Night and Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off. Listening to the album, it is impressive to hear the overall cohesiveness of the story the music presents based on the sheer volume of production input. Goulding explains her choices, “The last two albums got me to this place. I’ve had to learn a lot from that time, and that is what earned me the producers that I worked with on Delirium because every single producer came to me and asked me if I wanted to do something.”

For this release, Ellie made a conscious decision to try for a pop album. Some of the songs have already garnered commercial success and, looking at the volume of nominations in 2015 alone, we can expect that the pop world will be rewarding Ms. Goulding for her efforts certainly into 2016 and perhaps, based on volume of material in the album alone, stretching into 2017 as well. In a recent interview, Ellie Goulding explained why she picked the title Delirium, saying, ”It seemed like a really fitting word for the past couple of years with all the late nights of work, travel and lack of sleep.” She went on to express that, overall, the title fit the mood surrounding the project. When asked about her favorite tracks she lists Holding On For Life and Don’t Panic as standouts.

Fans will be neither disappointed nor surprised by Delirium. This album is a marriage between the brightness of the vocals in Bright Lights and the melodies of Halcyon Days. No matter how you listen to music, this album has something for you. Clubbing, festival tunes and bopping around in the car, even a besties anthem, Goulding’s got you covered with Delirium.

Throughout the album you can hear whispers of pop music history. More than once Goulding’s vocals brought to mind Sophie B Hawkins but there were others as well. Aftertaste is a bit retro 80s, including vocals reminiscent of Janet Jackson. Codes brings you into the later part of the same decade with an introduction that feels like a nod to LL Cool J’s I Need Love. The ultimate ode to the 80s however, has to be her best friend anthem, Army. If the final chorus doesn’t conjure images of the big end to Carly Simon’s Let The River Run, from the movie Working Girl, I don’t know what would.

Looking for more modern pop inspirations? How about the infectious K-Pop sounding ditty Around U? If Bollywood is more your thing then you’ll fall hard for my personal favorite, I Do What I Love. If you’re looking for a ‘girls night out’ anthem then Something In The Way You Move should kick off the night just about right. Devotion is the track to toss on when you want to get the party started on the dance floor. If you’re looking for Disney’s next teen movie, stuck in your head until you want to break something, then ironically Scream It Out is for you.

Speaking of screaming it out, I had two issues with this album and I’ve got to get them out so bear with me here. First, there was an overuse of vocal effects on many of the tracks. Goulding’s voice is made to sing and the attempts to ‘pop’ her sound may have, inadvertently, diluted the best parts of what makes her a standout artist. Secondly, my favorite track from the album, I Do What I Love, has been, to some extent, ruined by the non-cohesive inclusion of the lyric “But I got to move on baby because bitches got to eat”. This seems a direct contradiction to the message of the song, which is otherwise an anthem for the confident woman. Ellie owes herself, and the young women looking up to her, a much better self-reference. As a woman I’d be wrong to let this one slide.

Issues aside there are many things on this album that are working. The directional change of Delirium is especially great but Goulding needs to commit. The tracks that work the best are those that highlight her vocal strengths and give in, more and more, to the electronic movement. The best example is the song Outside. This song feels like the right mix of everything this album was trying to accomplish. That makes sense because the song is written and produced by Scottish DJ Calvin Harris. This is where Ellie Goulding needs to go, in terms of collaborations in writing and production, if she is serious about marrying her career with her passion for electronic music. And I hope she takes it there. If Goulding gives in to her passion completely then she will be the person to bring true electronic music to the American mainstream.

To do that, Goulding needs to say no to the voice manipulation gimmick infesting the pop music scene. While mic effects are fine, because they fit the electronic genre, completely changing her voice is a mistake in my book. She also needs to insist on the electronic song writing styles of European club DJs. When Ellie does this, she will have found her true sound. Her songwriting is strong and ready to transition into the vehicle she seems to be choosing for the melody. In Goulding’s interview regarding the album, she said that she set out to make a pop album and, by my estimations, she certainly accomplished that goal. Next time, I hope she just plans to make an album and leaves the definition in the hands of the fans. After all, Pop is short for Popular.

 
Written by Sam Gilman

Sam I. Gilman is a music journalist who has been involved with the industry as a DJ, voice-over talent and on-air host for radio and TV stations around the globe. www.samigilman.com

 
Author’s rating for Delirium

Pop Magazine’s official rating for Delirium

Rating key
MASTERPIECE a must-have
SUPERB for heavy rotation
EXCELLENT a great achievement
VERY GOOD a respectable result
GOOD worth checking out
FAIR an average outcome
WEAK not convincing stuff
BAD an underwhelming effort
VERY BAD quite a waste
FAIL a total failure