Higher Than Heaven (Deluxe)

“I was so relaxed on this album,” Ellie Goulding tells Apple Music of Higher Than Heaven. “It’s probably the most refreshing thing that I’ve done. It’s not a story this time. It’s more like a mood.” Goulding’s fifth album is her first since 2020’s very personal Brightest Blue, her first since becoming a mother, and features the first material she wrote after the UK’s various COVID lockdowns. It’s also a love letter to pop, and is the exuberant sound of an artist unburdened. “It’s not like releasing something like Brightest Blue, where I was genuinely nervous for people to hear some of the lyrics,” she says. “It’s the best version of what I do as a pop writer—as a pop vocalist.” Higher Than Heaven is a pop hydra of sorts. Many songwriting and production heads (including Greg Kurstin, Julia Michaels, Stephen Kozmeniuk, Ali Tamposi, Anthony Rossomando and Lostboy) combine for something powerful—but the heart is all Goulding. “I’m assertive in a studio, and I believe in trial and error, collaboration, being kind and staying open-minded,” she says. “I wanted this album to be universal. I love self-indulgent, poetic lyrics, but I consciously wanted there to be a simplicity to the lyrics and the scenarios. There’s a beauty to that. And there’s a power in ignoring the people that hint that maybe you need to start doing this or that. It’s so often a thing for female artists to have to invent alter egos or change their image or move into totally different genres or try and prove to people, ‘Here I am. I’m new and shiny again.’ I'm like, ‘No, I make good pop records and here I'm just going to keep doing what I love.’” Here, Goulding takes you through her album, track by track. “Midnight Dreams” “I made this one with Koz [Stephen Kozmeniuk]—he did the track and we did the lyrics together. It’s about the dream of love and fire and passion and infatuation. It’s about that all-encompassing feeling when love takes over you and you’re living in this dream world.” “Cure for Lov