Ellie Goulding says her new album is her “least personal” yet

Ellie Goulding has said she views her upcoming album, ‘Higher Than Heaven’, as her “least personal” release yet.

The singer explained in an interview with Rolling Stone that she wanted her fifth album to be “completely different” from its predecessor, 2020’s ‘Brightest Blue’.

“In the best possible way, this album wasn’t taken from personal experiences, and it was such a relief and really refreshing to not be sitting in the studio going through all the things that happened to me and affected me. Because I feel things very deeply. I always have,” she said. “It’s the least personal album, but I think it’s the best album because I got to just explore other things about myself. I just really, really enjoy writing, really enjoy being a singer.”

Meanwhile, she said that the song in her discography that she will always relate to is her 2012 hit ‘Anything Can Happen’. “It’s just the feeling I get every time I perform it,” she explained. “When I listen back to it, I don’t know how I did that song. I couldn’t tell you what I was feeling, what I was going through. And so there are some songs in retrospect that I listen to now that I sort of admire the person that I was when I wrote it because no, I think I can never write a song like that again. And I think it defines me the best. I don’t know why. It just does.”

‘Higher Than Heaven’ features the singles ‘Let It Die’, ‘Easy Lover’ and Goulding’s collaborative single with Alok and Sigala, ‘All By Myself’, and is due for release on April 7.

The album was supposed to be released on February 3, but last month Goulding confirmed that the release of ‘Higher Than Heaven’ was pushed back for a second time, citing “delays in sourcing” the materials for the physical records.

Earlier this week Goulding announced a UK and Ireland tour in support of the album for October and November. You can check out the full list of dates below – tickets go on general sale at 9am BST next Thursday (April 6) here.

OCTOBER
Monday 16 – Dublin, Ireland, 3Olympia Theatre
Wednesday 18 – Glasgow, Scotland, Barrowland
Thursday 19 – Newcastle upon Tyne, England, O2 City Hall
Friday 20 – Manchester, England, Academy
Monday 23 – Birmingham, England, O2 Institute
Tuesday 24 – London, England, Roundhouse
Friday 27 – Paris, France, Bataclan
Monday 30 – Utrecht, Netherlands, TivoliVredenburg
Tuesday 31 – Brussels, Belgium, Citque Royale

NOVEMBER
Thursday 02 – Milan, Itay, Fabrique
Monday 06 – Cologne, Germany, E Werk
Tuesday 07 – Berline, Germany, Huxleys Neue Welt