Ellie Goulding has confirmed that the release of her new album ‘Higher Than Heaven’ has been pushed back for a second time, citing “delays in sourcing” the materials for the physical records.
Back in October, Goulding announced her fifth studio album with the release of single ‘Let It Die’. That followed on from the release of ‘Easy Lover’ and Goulding’s collaborative single with Alok and Sigala, ‘All By Myself’.
The record was initially due to arrive on February 3, 2023 and was the follow up to her 2020 album, ‘Brightest Blue’. But Goulding delayed the release in January 2023, writing on Twitter: “To my incredible fans – I’m sorry to announce that we’re delaying the release of Higher Than Heaven to March 24.
“I know you’ve all been so patient with me but we’ve had some exciting opportunities appear behind the scenes which I cannot wait to share with you in due course.”
Goulding has now announced a further delay to April 7, writing on her social media: “Here we go again. Here are all the different versions of Higher Than Heaven available to order now from my official store (link in bio).
“As you know, making these products as green as possible is incredibly important to me so we’ve worked really hard to stick to that promise. As a result & due to delays in sourcing these products, we have to push back the release ever so slightly to April 7 just so we can get these beautiful products to you as soon as humanly possible. Thank you ever so much for your patience and I love you all.”
Speaking about the forthcoming project last year, Goulding explained: “There was definitely a darkness about [the past two years] that was palpable in the studio, with everyone having gone through it differently.
“I think for that reason, nobody wanted to sit and agonise over some relationship or some drama. So that’s how this album came together.”
According to a statement, the album will contain “stomping basslines, soaring synths and euphoric melodies”. It’ll feature contributions from the likes of Greg Kurstin, Jesse Shatkin (Charli XCX, Years & Years), Koz (Madonna, Dua Lipa) and Andrew Wells (Halsey, Yungblud).
Elsewhere, figures from the music industry previously spoke to NME about what’s really causing the delays in manufacturing vinyl and artists getting their albums made.
Josh Cohen, who runs the label Memorials of Distinction and manages artists including Porridge Radio and Caroline, said getting vinyl made has “always been a bit of palaver”. He added: “I’m worried about it and it’s insane. If you work in the independent music world, everything is very last-minute anyway. Trying to get stuff done six months ahead of time is a big ask, now it’s much more than that.
“As a manager, it’s been a huge source of stress. There are a weird number of factors coming together at once. There’s a weird bottleneck of albums being released after a delay because of coronavirus, and there were also a lot more albums made during the pandemic too because they couldn’t tour. Pretty much every artist in the world is releasing an album between September 2021 and September 2022.”