‘It’s my least personal album!’ Thank you, Ellie Goulding, for making pop escapist again

Saying your new album is your “most personal yet” is the oldest pop cliche in the book. It’s an easy – or lazy – way to say that fans should be invested in your next record without telling them why, exactly; a tease that buying a copy of the album will get them ever-so-much-closer to the inside of their favourite star’s head. It’s a line used by the media as much as by stars themselves; a cursory Google of “most personal album yet” will bring up her most personal yet – but often it’s what you deploy when you have nothing else interesting to say.