In January 2017, Goulding announced that work on new music had begun. In April of the same year, producer BloodPop revealed on social media he was in the studio with Goulding. That same month, Goulding released a collaboration with Kygo entitled "First Time". On 24 October 2018, she released "Close to Me" with Diplo and Swae Lee. She told The Guardian in early 2019, "It's very much written by me." She further discussed three new songs: "Flux", "Love I'm Given" and "Electricity". "Flux" was released on 1 March of the same year. In July 2019, Goulding stated that her next material to be released would be the songs "Woman I Am" and "Start". In November, she released her rendition of Joni Mitchell's Christmas song "River", which topped the UK Singles Chart, becoming her third UK number-one single and the last UK number one song of the 2010s. In a March 2020 interview with Heart, Goulding revealed that the album "kind of comes in two parts," adding that she plays the guitar, bass and piano on the project. During an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, she described the album as having two sides, revealing that the first side will features songs written entirely by her, while the second is described as being "like an alter ego" and contains the majority of singles released from 2018 to 2020.
Release and promotion
On 27 May 2020, Goulding announced Brightest Blue as the album's title, alongside its cover artwork, release dates and formats, and track listing. The album's pre-order was made alongside the announcement. The first side, Brightest Blue, features 13 total tracks, while the second EG.0, features the previously-released "Close to Me", "Hate Me" and "Worry About Me", as well as two new tracks. Originally scheduled for release on 5 June 2020, it was later delayed to 12 June, and later to 17 July of the same year. On 13 July of the same year, she released a trailer for the album on YouTube. In support of the album, Goulding will embark on the Brightest Blue Tour, beginning in April 2021. For the album's physical release, Goulding and her team opted to have copies manufactured with as many environmentally-friendly materials as possible. According to Goulding's official digital store, a regular single-disc CD is packaged in a Digisleeve manufactured with FSC-certified recycled cardboard and is sealed in a "plant-based" wrap. Variations of formats such as cassette tapes and vinyl records have also been manufactured with minimised or recycled plastic materials and packaging. Goulding added “ great progress has been made on this and I’m pleased we’ve been able to push the industry forwards, but we are still pushing to do more.”
Singles
On 13 March 2020, Goulding released "Worry About Me", a collaboration with Blackbear, as the first single from the album. The accompanying music video, directed by Emil Nava, was released the same day. Upon the song's release, it received generally positive reviews from music critics. Commercially, the song debuted at number 78 on the UK Singles Chart. On 21 May 2020, "Power" was released as the album's second single. The accompanying music video was directed by Imogen Snell and Riccardo Castano, and was released later the same day. It peaked at number 86 in the UK. The Lauv-assisted "Slow Grenade" was released as the third single off the album on 30 June 2020.
Critical reception
Brightest Blue received generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received a weighted average score of 74, based on ten reviews. Album of the Year collected 11 reviews and calculated an average of 67 out of 100. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album a 6.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Neil Z. Yeung called the album, "a powerful reclamation of self that recaptures the simplicity of her debut and the vulnerability of Halcyon," as well as a statement that "has growth and maturity at its core."
Commercial performance
Brightest Blue became Goulding's third number-one album in the United Kingdom, debuting with sales of 14,820 units.
