Delirium (Ellie Goulding album)


Delirium is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding, released on 6 November 2015 by Polydor Records. It represents Goulding's shift toward mainstream pop, featuring large-scale, radio-oriented production and a sound that differs from her earlier indie-electro style. The album blends elements of electro-pop, synth-pop, and contemporary dance music.
Delirium includes the singles "On My Mind", "Army", and "Something in the Way You Move", as well as promotional tracks like "Lost and Found". It also features her international hit "Love Me like You Do" from the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack and additional collaborations on deluxe editions.
Critical reception was generally favourable, noting Goulding's vocal range, the album's polished production, and its pop-oriented direction, though some critics mentioned uneven songwriting and similarities to contemporary pop trends. Commercially, Delirium debuted within the top three in both the United Kingdom and the United States, achieving Goulding's highest first-week sales to date. It also appeared on several year-end lists.

Background

Goulding stated that the sound of the album would be more pop-oriented than her previous releases. Speaking in an interview, she said: "A part of me views this album as an experiment, to make a big pop album; I made a conscious decision that I wanted it to be on another level". About the album's title, Goulding explained that Delirium reflects contrasting emotions, saying that it could describe either a euphoric state or its complete opposite, as she often finds herself "in a state of delirium."
Following the release of the lead single "On My Mind", media outlets and fans speculated that the song was written about Ed Sheeran, who was rumored to have penned the 2014 track "Don't" about his relationship with Goulding. However, she denied the speculation in an interview with MTV News, saying, "I'm sorry for all the people who want it to be about someone, it's not. It's like a myth, there's no one to be thinking about. It's just a fun song and that's the first of its kind because I do like to write about my own experiences."

Composition

Delirium is a pop and electro-pop album that emphasises large-scale, radio-friendly production. While the album isn't devoid of its characteristic electronic atmosphere, it adopts a more mainstream tone and expands Goulding's sonic palette with melodically catchy, R&B-infused songs. Delirium replaces the orchestral elements that were prominent on Goulding's second album, Halcyon, with production typical of mainstream pop. It incorporates influences from 1980s-style pop and contemporary electronic trends, with the elements of synth-pop, electronic, and dance music. The album was characterised by expansive arrangements, layered vocals, and polished studio production, reflecting a shift from the indie-electro fusion which characterised her earlier work.

Songs

Delirium opens with "Intro ", where Goulding sings in her upper register before transitioning into lower, melismatic phrases over a synth-based and string-layered arrangement. The track transitions into "Aftertaste", characterised by its steady disco-influenced rhythm. The album continues with "Something in the Way You Move", built on a bright, rhythmic pop production. "On My Mind" is a pop and R&B track, being noted that it blends electronic elements with brisk guitar riffs, sharp percussion, and rhythmic vocal phrasing. The lyrics, which address a past relationship, have been interpreted as a possible response to Ed Sheeran's "Don't" ; Goulding stated that it was not written about any specific person. "Army" is dedicated to Goulding's best friend, celebrating their bond and mutual support. Goulding described the track as "honest, real, electric", explaining that it reflects how their friendship gives her strength and confidence. "Lost and Found" blends folk-inspired guitar pop with electronic textures. As the song lyrically conveys a sense of nostalgia and longing, Goulding reminisces about her past and contrasts it with city life. In "Don't Panic", Goulding describes a cycle of emotional repetition without explicit reflection on its consequences. "Don't Need Nobody" features lyrics like "So many bodies I've touched / Crashing around me like dust / You are the realest thing I've never had to fake". In "Devotion", she delivers a "hypnotic mix of higher-pitched vocals" that "dance around her grounded production in a cosmic way". The standard edition closes with "Scream It Out", described as "euphoric".

Singles

"On My Mind" was released as the album's lead single on 17 September 2015, with the album's announcement. Produced by Max Martin, Ilya, Ali Payami, and Calvin Harris, the song premiered earlier that day on The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw. Goulding performed "On My Mind" live for the first time at the Apple Music Festival in September 2015, where she opened the event with the song. The accompanying music video, directed by Emil Nava and filmed in Las Vegas, was released the same day. Before its release, Goulding teased the song via her Twitter. "On My Mind" received positive reviews and performed well commercially, reaching the top 10 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Army" was sent to Italian radio on 15 January 2016 as the album's second single. The song was released to contemporary hit radio in the United States on 19 April. The third and final single from the album, "Something in the Way You Move", impacted contemporary hit radio in the United States on 19 January. Goulding teased the song through her Facebook page, featuring 13-second video.

Other songs

"Lost and Found" was released on 23 October 2015 as a promotional single. During the week before the album's release, several radio stations premiered different tracks from the album. "Don't Panic" premiered on Graham Norton's BBC Radio 2 show on 31 October, while "Keep On Dancin'" debuted on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show on 2 November.
The album includes Goulding's song "Love Me like You Do", which was originally released as a single from the soundtrack to the 2015 film Fifty Shades of Grey and became a commercial success worldwide. The deluxe edition includes Goulding's collaboration with Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, "Outside", released as a single from his 2014 album Motion. The North American deluxe edition contains Goulding's collaboration with American electronic music trio Major Lazer, "Powerful", released as a single from their 2015 album Peace is the Mission.

Critical reception

Delirium received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 70, based on 15 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
Peter Robinson of Q remarked that the album "seems to enjoy pushing pop's boundaries, and six years into her career feels like Goulding's first true superstar moment", while noting that her "nuanced lyrics steer Delirium away from homogeneity". Michael Cragg of The Observer wrote that the album "goes straight for the pop jugular, unleashing a relentless barrage of bangers that almost always hit the spot." Matt Collar of AllMusic opined that "it's the unexpectedly appealing combination of Goulding's distinctive voice and the melismatic R&B bent of the songs on Delirium that makes for such an ecstatic listen." Eve Barlow of Spin commented, "Finally, embracing the responsibility to provide stone-cold tunes without pretense", adding, "Perhaps she's finally come to terms with playing in the major leagues because she's sussed out the sweet spot between pop homogeneity and experimentation." Despite criticising Goulding for copying pop trends and stating the "darker, deeper tones" may have been "a better fit for Meghan Trainor than Goulding", Pitchforks Hazel Cills commended the singer for her "evocative storytelling and ability to craft great dance music".
Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone compared Goulding's change in musical direction to "the country-to-pop transformation her pal Taylor Swift pulled off with 1989", stating that "he songwriting on Delirium doesn't always feel worthy of her ambitions, but Goulding is technically peerless and versatile, maintaining her power and flare throughout and crushing every glassy jam she's put in front of." Similarly, Mark Allister of PopMatters pointed out the album's "rather limited scope of lyric subjects" and concluded, "Goulding's sound has gained an even greater sheen and expectations have grown, and we'll see, in the coming months, whether Delirium is the big album that Goulding is aiming for." Entertainment Weeklys Kyle Anderson viewed Delirium as "too well-constructed and honestly ambitious, and the tracks that land in Goulding's comfort zone rank among her best work. But the album also fails to elevate Goulding to her desired plateau, ultimately making it a narrow and sometimes frustrating miss." Matthew Horton of NME felt that "here's something disappointing about, however undeniable the quality of material." In a negative review for Clash, Joe Rivers expressed that Goulding's voice is "too wispy to hold its own versus the maximalist rave-pop of the day. Throughout Delirium, her vocals are often double-tracked in an attempt to circumvent this, but it largely fails, and the singing is forever fighting for attention amid a swamp of crashing beats and over-zealous synths."

Commercial performance

Delirium debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart and at number one on the UK Album Downloads Chart, with 38,429 copies sold in its first week, marking the biggest first-week sales of Goulding's career so far. In Australia, Delirium charted at number three, becoming her second album to land within the top 10 and her highest-charting album in the country.
In the United States, the album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with 61,000 album-equivalent units, earning Goulding her highest-charting album yet. As of February 2016, the album had sold 117,000 copies in the US.

Track listing

Sample credits

Personnel

Credits were adapted from the liner notes.

Musicians

  • Ellie Goulding – lead vocals ; backing vocals ; live percussion
  • Joe Kearns – keyboards, programming
  • Chris Ketley – string arrangements ; choir arrangements
  • Everton Nelson – violin
  • Emil Chakalov – violin
  • Richard George – violin
  • Jenny Sacha – violin
  • Sarah Tuke – violin
  • Max Baillie – viola
  • Emma Owens – viola
  • Ian Burdge – cello
  • Chris Worsey – cello
  • Greg Kurstin – bass, drums, guitar, piano, keyboards
  • Ryan Tedder – backing vocals, guitar, instrumentation, programming
  • Noel Zancanella – instrumentation, programming
  • Ilya – backing vocals ; guitar, bass, keyboards, programming
  • Max Martin – keyboards ; programming ; drums, percussion, bass ; backing vocals
  • Fred – instrument arrangements ; programming, synths, percussion, drums, keyboards, backing vocals
  • Jenny Schwartz – backing vocals
  • Jeremy Lertola – backing vocals
  • Sam Holland – backing vocals
  • Savan Kotecha – backing vocals
  • Annabel Williams – choir
  • Bobbie Gordon – choir
  • Hayley Sanderson – choir
  • Lloyds Wade – choir
  • Joshua Hayes – choir
  • Simone Daly-Richards – choir
  • Janet Ramus – choir
  • Dawn Joseph – choir
  • Ali Payami – programming ; drums, keyboards, bass ; percussion ; backing vocals ; guitar ; synths
  • Mattias Bylund – strings, string arrangements
  • Mattias Johansson – violin
  • David Bukovinszky – cello
  • Peter Carlsson – backing vocals
  • Oscar Holter – backing vocals
  • Robin Fredriksson – backing vocals
  • Mattias Larsson – backing vocals
  • Oscar Görres – backing vocals
  • Ludvig Söderberg – backing vocals
  • The Struts – programming, drums, bass, keyboards
  • Peter Svensson – programming, drums, bass, keyboards, additional backing vocals
  • The Wolf Cousins Royal Choir – gang vocals
  • Benjy Gibson – drums
  • Emmanuel Franklyn Adalebu – drums
  • Doris Sandberg – backing vocals
  • Cory Bice – backing vocals
  • Silke Lorenzen – backing vocals
  • Rickard Göransson – backing vocals
  • Carl Falk – guitar, programming, keyboards, backing vocals
  • Joakim Berg – acoustic guitar
  • Martin Sköld – bass guitar
  • Kristoffer Fogelmark – backing vocals
  • Laleh Pourkarim – backing vocals ; bass ; drum programming, synths, live percussion
  • Gustaf Thörn – backing vocals ; piano, organ, guitar, bass, string arrangements
  • Klas Åhlund – synths, bass, keyboards, programming
  • Jim Eliot – additional synths, guitar
  • Oli Langford – violin
  • Reiad Chibah – viola
  • Richard Pryce – double bass
  • Joel Little – bass, drums, piano, keyboards ; programming
  • Erik Arvinder – strings
  • Calvin Harris – all instruments

Technical

  • Joe Kearns – production, mixing ; engineering ; string production ; vocal production, vocal recording ; choir production ; additional vocals production, additional vocals recording ; additional vocal engineering
  • Chris Ketley – string production ; choir production
  • Jason Elliott – string engineering ; choir engineering
  • Bob Knight – string supply ; choir supply
  • Greg Kurstin – production ; engineering ; vocal production ; recording ; additional production, vocal recording
  • Alex Pasco – engineering ; recording
  • Julian Burg – engineering ; recording
  • Ryan Tedder – production
  • Noel Zancanella – production
  • Anders Kjær – additional production
  • Synthomania – additional production
  • Rich Rich – engineering
  • Rob Cohen – engineering assistance
  • Max Martin – production
  • Ilya – production
  • Sam Holland – engineering
  • Fred – additional production, vocal recording ; vocal production, engineering ; production
  • Laleh Pourkarim – additional vocals recording ; vocal recording ; production ; engineering, vocal production
  • Ali Payami – production
  • Peter Carlsson – vocal editing
  • Mattias Bylund – string recording, string editing
  • Peter Svensson – production
  • The Struts – production
  • Noah "Mailbox" Passovoy – engineering
  • Cory Bice – engineering assistance
  • Jeremy Lertola – engineering assistance
  • Liam Nolan – vocal recording
  • Rob Katz – engineering
  • Kristian Lundin – additional vocals recording ; additional production, vocal recording, vocal production, vocal editing
  • Carl Falk – production
  • Klas Åhlund – production
  • Jim Eliot – vocal production
  • Joel Little – production ; engineering ; vocal production, additional production
  • Gustaf Thörn – engineering assistance ; production assistance
  • Guy Lawrence – production
  • Jimmy Napes – production
  • Calvin Harris – production, mixing
  • Cameron Gower Poole – vocal engineering
  • Tom Campbell – engineering assistance
  • Simon Davey – mastering
  • Serban Ghenea – mixing
  • John Hanes – engineering for mix
  • Tom Coyne – mastering
  • Randy Merrill – mastering assistance

Artwork

  • Ellie Goulding – creative direction
  • Cassandra Gracey – creative direction
  • David Roemer – photography
  • Richard Andrews – design