Never blinded
Ellie Goulding is nothing if not honest. When she released her third album, 2015’s Delirium, she was coming in hot from a global
No. 1 with Love Me Like You Do and her hit Calvin Harris collaboration Outside, plus earlier hits Light, Starry Eyed, Burn, Anything Could Happen and I Need Your Love.
Everything was aligned for the album to establish her an international pop superstar – Goulding worked with hit maker Max Martin on the album, as well as writing with top shelf US producers.
Delirium scored a few hits and mixed reviews, but five years down the track, and with the benefit of some isolationprompted reflection, Goulding has distanced herself from the record.
“That album was not especially close to my heart,” Goulding says. “Which sounds awful, because you should never put out an album if it’s not close to your heart.”
Goulding admits she was caught up in the rush, blinded by the lights in LA.
“I was thinking about what my next step as pop singer had to be. I feel like I got a bit lost around that time. I wish I had acknowledged that time as something that comes with the territory, over 10 years being in the limelight you’re always going to have your ups and downs, times when you get lost and find yourself, I’m at peace with it now.”
Goulding toured Delirium heavily, and while she released a string of collaborations – singing on tracks by Diplo, Kygo, Sean Paul, Clean Bandit and Major Lazer – now she admits suffering writer’s block, especially when trying to tap back into the LA pop circuit.
The singer’s private life was on track – marrying art dealer Casper Jobling last year and throwing herself into charity work including becoming a United Nations ambassador.
Work on her fourth album started with Goulding chasing and scoring - more major pop hits, releasing Close to Me (with Diplo and Swae Lee) in 2018 then Hate Me with late rapper Juice WRLD last year.
However Goulding decided she didn’t want her entire album to just pop bangers with feature guests. Her solution – fourth album Brightest Blue is laid out side one being personal songs more concerned with emotion than radio play and side two housing those pop collaborations including new single Slow
Grenade with Lauv. “Side two is more like what I would do if I had full confidence in who I was, a bonafide pop star. I’ve been really open about the fact I can feel like I have impostor syndrome and can feel quite vulnerable.”
Goulding says she does enjoy her occasional moments of being a pop star. “That keeps me going. I love my own stuff but it is indulgent. I just get to write about my feelings, they’re not necessarily commercial songs. Side one are the songs that get played on the radio and you hear when you’re out. That’s the exciting side of what I do. Side two is more cathartic and something I just feel like I have to do for myself and it just so happens fans enjoy that side too. I didn’t want to strike a balance, I wanted to literally separate them.”
Side one includes collaborations with US indie acts serpentwithfeet and Patrick Wimberley of Chairlift, while single Power (which samples Dua Lipa) is close to her, even if it peaked at No. 86 in the UK.
“It’s quite a niche sound, I knew it might not get played on the radio but it’s become a bit of a cult song because so many people know it and discovered it through Shazam.” She filmed the video for Power on her own iPhone, unable to do the original clip she’d planned because of lockdown.
“It was liberating to be walking around in stockings and underwear, stuff I’d never actually realistically wear, I wear pyjamas.”
Goulding’s honest policy means