Goulding and her label, Interscope, hired some of the hottest producer talent in the world: Adele-collaborator Greg Kurstin OneRepublic’s frontman, Ryan Tedder, who has had even greater success as a producer of danceable pop and the heavy-hitting Max Martin, who since 1999 has written or co-written over 20 number one hits. The songwriting on Delirium doesn’t always feel worthy of her ambitions, but Goulding is technically peerless and versatile, maintaining her power and flare throughout and crushing every glassy jam she’s put in front of.As an album of dance songs to get you off your feet and moving, Delirium is very good. The album’s most ambitious mash-up, “Holding On For Life,” written by Adele helpmate Greg Kurstin, opens as a gospel stomp, then oonches into a disco power-ballad, collapsing decades of music history into four minutes.

The gauzy, house-y “Don’t Need Nobody” and “Devotion,” which angles from the techno club to the folk club in a matter of seconds, express that balance more pointedly. For the most part, though, streamlined tracks like “Keep On Dancing” and “Something in the Way You Move” stay mindful of her rave-y side, whooshing but dark-tinted, gliding into shadow. The sparkling Eighties confection “Around U” is similarly prim. On the Martin-produced hit “On My Mind,” Goulding’s big voice is compacted into a series of taut flares over clipped hi-hats and Police-like guitar smears. Here she teams up with hitmakers like Ryan Tedder and Max Martin, a move that’s not unlike the country-to-pop transformation her pal Taylor Swift pulled off with 1989. On her last album, Halcyon, Goulding worked with Calvin Harris, Tinie Tempah and Jim Eliot – producers and writers with dance-music roots.

Delirium ellie goulding album cover