# Delirium (Ellie Goulding album)

Delirium is the third studio album by English singer and songwriter Ellie Goulding, released on 6 November 2015 by Polydor Records. Music critics were generally impressed by the overall production of the record, although they were ambivalent in regards to its originality. It debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200, earning Goulding her highest-charting record in the latter country and her highest first-week sales figures in both territories. The album spawned three singles: "On My Mind", "Army" and "Something in the Way You Move".

## Background

Goulding has stated that the sound of the album is 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".

## Singles

"On My Mind" was released as the album's lead single on 17 September 2015. The song 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 2016.
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 2016.

### Other songs

"Lost and Found" was released on 23 October 2015 as a promotional single from Delirium. 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 2015, while "Keep On Dancin'" debuted on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show on 2 November 2015.
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 also 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 (also featuring American-Jamaican singer Tarrus Riley), Powerful, released as a single from their 2015 album Peace is the Mission.

## Critical reception

Professional ratings :
| Aggregate scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 70/100 |
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Clash | 2/10 |
| Entertainment Weekly | B− |
| NME | 3/5 |
| The Observer | |
| Pitchfork | 7.2/10 |
| PopMatters | |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Spin | 7/10 |
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, [Goulding is] 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", Pitchfork's 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 "[t]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 Weekly's 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 "[t]here's something disappointing about [the album], 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."

### Accolades

Critics' rankings of Delirium :
| Publication | Accolade | Rank |
| Digital Spy | The 25 Best Albums of 2015 | 7 |
| The New Zealand Herald | The Best Pop Music of 2015 | 3 |
| Popjustice | The Top 33 Albums of 2015 | 4 |
| Rolling Stone | 20 Best Pop Albums of 2015 | 12 |

## 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 (42,000 in pure album sales), earning Goulding her highest-charting album yet. As of February 2016, the album had sold 117,000 copies in the US.