Goulding pulled in the production talents of the likes of Carl Falk, Peter Svensson and the indomitable Max Martin to cultivate the dance floor-heavy sound she was aiming for. To be sure, there are plenty of club bangers here. The songs that populate Delirium, while often relying on the same ’80s touchstones as Swift and Jepsen’s most recent output, can tend to blur together if you’re not listening carefully. Other heavy-hitting pop stars playing in the same league - Taylor Swift is clearly the most obvious choice, but Carly Rae Jepsen is also a fair comparison - have managed to carve out distinct niches for themselves through personal, intimate lyrics and songs that worked together as a cohesive album, yet also had their own sonic footprints. But there’s a difference between sounding big and sounding powerful, between sounding big and sounding like you have something to say. No one is saying that Delirium doesn’t sound big. She’s commanding a big stage, but the stadium-sized spectacle can ultimately feel disjointed and, in its worst moments, bland, forcing listeners to sit back and try to piece together what, exactly, just happened after the final big synth flourish fades out.
For all the buildup, though, the execution of Goulding’s larger-than-life ambition doesn’t always live up to the premise. A few genuine gems sprinkled throughout Delirium serve to support the bravado behind this claim. Ellie Goulding wants you to know that Delirium, her first full-length work in three years, is a big pop album, in opposition to what apparently amounted to small-to-medium format works Lightsand Halcyon. There’s no denying that the narratives and emotions behind Goulding’s work have certainly always felt big - cinematic, even.
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