Ellie Goulding Brings Back Some 2010s Energy with “Ravers”

Following the self-reflectiveness of “Black Prada Dress” and the slow jam of a love song that is “4 Seasons,” Ellie Goulding has offered up a faster-tempo’d third single from her forthcoming album, I Know Too Much, called “Ravers.” And yes, with a song title like that, one would naturally expect a more danceable sound than her previous two singles. However, this danceable sound isn’t just any kind, but rather a decidedly 2010s kind. And, seeing as how Goulding got her start in that decade (with her debut record, Lights, being released at the very beginning of 2010), it makes perfect sense that she would occasionally return to the sound that “formed” her (and that she, in turn, helped to form).

Though it starts out with a slow, distorted “old-timey” sort of note (one that’s almost eerie in its tone), it doesn’t take long for the real sound of “Ravers” to shine through. What’s more, there’s even a touch of “I Need Your Love,” the Calvin Harris song that Goulding featured on in 2013, to this track. And, of course, there’s also a general Halcyon aura to it. This in no small part thanks to some top-notch co-production from Jack Rochon and Dave Hamelin, who infuse the song with plenty of general EDM cachet. And plenty of piano.

To be sure, the piano is so important that said instrument even appears within the first twenty seconds of the Sean Price Williams-directed video. To boot, Price Williams’ vast experience in the art of cinematography is surely what helps give the overall look of this video such a soft focus, dreamy appearance. After all, there’s a nostalgia that surrounds not only the 2010s now, but also the idea of being a “raver till you die.” The implication being that one is still attached to the raving days of their youth that makes them refuse to let go of it in later years. And as Goulding bops her head amongst the crowd of fellow ravers with a stoic expression on her face, it’s apparent that, despite that stoicism, she’s very much committed to the cause of raving.

When the pulsing beat drops at the forty-one-second mark after Goulding gets in some “siren song” action with her “eh-ee-yeah-ee-yeah-oh-oh-oh” sounds, the hordes in the video move and convulse as one. A living, breathing entity that speaks to what FKA Twigs was singing about on Eusexua‘s “Room of Fools”: “This room of fools/We make something together/We’re open wounds/Just bleeding out the pressure.” Goulding and her fellow ravers are doing the same here, further emphasized by lyrics that are awash in evocative, tactile imagery. To be sure, one might feel as if they really are at a rave when Goulding provides such descriptions as, “Hold me/Till your sweat is my sweat/Tasting/Till your spit is my spit/Hold me/We give and take it/Reciprocate it/Turn the pain to a drug/Just let it lift you up/‘Cause we were all made for love.”

So it is that Goulding captures the spirit of what fundamentally drives so many ravers into various middle-of-nowhere milieus, ultimately pursuing far more than just a drug high, but rather, a love one. For, at their best, raves are nothing if not one giant, modern-day “love-in.” Goulding definitely appears to be feeling that love as she stands beneath a barrage of buildings towering over her while she opens her arms (outstretched as if she’s channeling Jennifer Love Hewitt in I Know What You Did Last Summer screaming, “What are you waiting for, huh?! What are you waiting for?!”). Almost as if she’s waiting to embrace whatever comes at her, good or bad.

However, what seems to come at her (at least in the next scene) is a hot guy who looks overtly modeled after Goulding’s recent love, Beau Minniear. And as the rhythm escalates and Goulding insists, “Just let it lift you up/‘Cause we were all made for love/All day, all night/Sugar rush in your blood [though probably more than just mere ‘sugar’ at a rave]/It’s heaven to touch,” Price Williams’ shots of various members of the crowd (though more like just their body parts) become even tighter. Almost as if he’s keen to branch out into visuals that are even more experimental and playful than what he’s done for Addison Rae’s videos (including “Diet Pepsi,” “Aquamarine” and “Fame Is a Gun”).

This extends, perhaps, into the random appearance of a copy machine that will get its major “close-up” at the end of the video (though it also gets some ass play in between, as people will always enjoy making copies of their body parts on a copy machine—hence, copies of people’s hands going around in the crowd). But before that point, Goulding keeps loving up on this guy in the crowd as she admits, “I’m on the darker side/I wanna quiet my mind a little while/Call like an animal/Lovers in a better light/Move in the way our bodies designed/Ravers until we die.” Her commitment being a raver until she dies also come across in her sartorial choice in this video: a top that can best be described as “2000s chic.” Or hell, maybe even 2010s chic, what with its shimmering silver…fringe? Anyway, it looks like it was plucked directly from the rack at Forever 21 (and that’s not an insult).

As the video comes to an end, bodies grind on, writhe against and kiss one another with increasing freneticism. There’s even a sequence where three dancers take center stage to perform some moves that are actually choreographed in between more shots of the crowd and Goulding herself increasingly giving in to the night. But when the beat suddenly stops, everyone spontaneously “collapses” to the floor, putting a spotlight on the aforementioned copy machine, as well as Goulding and her Beau substitute being the last ones standing, literally. For there’s always that one couple or group that can still keep going well into the wee hours of the morning. In this particular scenario, Goulding happens to be that person. Chalk it up to her 2010s-era grit, slogging it out in the clubs of yore, back when the EDM trend made the concept of raving far more mainstream. As Goulding seems keen to make it again now with “Ravers.”