Higher Than Heaven

Higher Than Heaven is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding, released on 7 April 2023 by Polydor Records. It was preceded by the singles "Easy Lover", "Let It Die", "Like a Saviour" and "By The End of the Night". It is her first album in three years, since Brightest Blue (2020).
Background and development
The album was written in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Goulding: "There was definitely a darkness about  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.
Goulding expressed that in contrast to her previous 2020 album Brightest Blue, the album is her "least personal album." She elaborated "...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.  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."
Release & promotion
On 19 October 2022, Goulding announced the album's title and revealed its artwork cover, with an initial release date of 3 February 2023. However on 9 January 2023, Goulding announced an initial delay to 24 March, stating "...we’ve had some exciting opportunities appear behind the scenes." On February 28, she announced a second delay to 7 April; stating issues with sourcing eco-friendly material for the album's physical formats.
On 31 March, Goulding released the songs "Midnight Dreams", "Cure for Love", "Love Goes On" and "Higher Than Heaven" on digital platforms in conjunction with her appearance on the Amazon Freevee series Monumental; making the first 8 tracks of the album available.
On 7 April, the day of the album's release, Goulding released a music video for "Better Man", directed by Tom Sandford.
Higher Than Heaven received generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received a weighted average score of 78, based on six reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album a 6.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.