疯狂快感 (2015)

Delirium is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding. It was released on 6 November 2015 by Polydor Records. The album was produced by a range of collaborators including Max Martin and Greg Kurstin. Delirium marked a shift towards a more mainstream pop sound for Goulding, incorporating elements of electropop, synth-pop, dance, house, and R&B. She described it as a turning point in her career and sought to create "bigger songs" while drawing on the more positive period of her life at the time.

Three singles supported Delirium—"On My Mind", "Army", and "Something in the Way You Move"—as well as the promotional single "Lost and Found". The album also features "Love Me like You Do" from the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, which was a worldwide commercial success. Collaborations with Calvin Harris and Major Lazer appear on the deluxe editions. To promote the album, Goulding embarked on the Delirium World Tour, performing across Europe and North America, including in various music festivals.

Critical reception was generally favourable; some reviewers praised Goulding's vocal range and the album's polished production and pop-oriented sound, while others criticised its songwriting and likened its sound to pop trends. The record topped the albums chart in the Belgian region of Flanders and reached the top five in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Delirium also received multi-platinum certifications in multiple territories.

Background and development

After the release of her second studio album, Halcyon (2012), Ellie Goulding sought to expand her audience and establish herself more firmly as a pop artist. Halcyon's modest commercial performance, particularly in the United States, contributed to her decision to pursue a more contemporary pop sound on her third studio album, Delirium. On this album, Goulding worked with various producers including Max Martin and Greg Kurstin.

Goulding indicated that Delirium's title had been associated with the project as early as April 2013, when she posted the word on Twitter more than two years before the album's release. Goulding also said that her mood and happiness shifted following the success of her 2013 single "Burn"; she ultimately saw Delirium as an exploration of happiness and the creation of "bigger songs", calling it a "go hard or go home" moment in her career. Goulding felt that Delirium encapsulated everything she had been through up to that point, saying that it reflects contrasting emotions, as it could describe either "a really happy, crazy state" or its "complete opposite", as she often found herself "in a state of delirium".

Delirium was recorded and produced in various locations such as London, Herefordshire, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Auckland. While in Los Angeles, Goulding found herself mingling with people she greatly admired, describing her time in the city as "clean and stress-free" and attributing the upbeat sound of Delirium in part to her positive experiences there. She contrasted its sound with Halcyon's darker mood, which she wrote during an intense depressive period.

Composition

Influence

Goulding attributed the distinctiveness of her sound to her voice and her upbringing around electronic music, citing her mother's interest in rave music as an early influence. She described the sound of Delirium as more pop-oriented than her previous releases, stating: "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." Goulding depicted Delirium as a more collaborative project that represented her identity as a pop artist, while incorporating her classical, folk, and particularly electronic influences. She shaped the album with live performance in mind and chose co-writers to exchange lyrical ideas, as opposed to Halcyon where she brainstormed the lyrics mainly by herself.

Nylon's Hayden Manders argued that the involvement of high-profile producers did not obscure her personality but instead amplified it across dance-oriented songs. He viewed Goulding's approach to pop as an expansion of the sound associated with her previous electronic collaborations, describing Delirium as making pop feel comparable to the EDM acts she had previously worked with.

Production and vocals

A pop and electropop album, Delirium replaces the orchestral and indie-electro elements that were prominent on Halcyon with production typical of pure pop; Delirium features elements of synth-pop, electronic, dance, and R&B, with influences from 1980s-style pop.