Ed Sheeran - '=' Album Review
Ed Sheeran is a singer/songwriter who began playing guitar at a young age and soon after started writing his own songs. When he was just a teenager, he moved to London to pursue his music, and his outpouring of creativity added up to hundreds of live shows. Drawing attention for his online performances, Sheeran hit No. 1 on the iTunes chart before he ever signed with a record label.
Ed Sheeran was born on February 17, 1991, in Halifax, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom. When he was 11, Sheeran met singer-songwriter Damien Rice backstage at one of Rice's shows, and the young musician found added inspiration. As the story goes, Rice told Sheeran to write his own music, and Sheeran set out the next day to do just that. It wasn't long before Sheeran was recording CDs and selling them, and he soon put together his first official EP, 'The Orange Room'. With that accomplishment and his abiding ambition driving him, at only 14 years of age, Sheeran headed to London for the summer. Thinking he could find gigs in the big city, Sheeran left home with his guitar and a backpack full of clothes, and his musical career took flight. Once in London, Sheeran began to get busy recording and playing the local singer/songwriter circuit and quickly released two albums. He also began opening for more established acts, such as Nizlopi, the Noisettes and Jay Sean, and released another EP in 2009, a year that found him playing more than 300 live shows.
It wasn't until 2010 that Sheeran made the leap to the next level in his career, and it came via online media, a route Sheeran had learned to use with great effectiveness. When a video he posted online got the attention of Example, a rapper, Sheeran was asked to go on the road with him as his opening act. This led to an even larger online fan base and inspiration for many more songs, which ended up filling three new EPs, all in 2010.
In 2017, Sheeran was made a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his services to music and charity. A few weeks later, Sheeran announced that he had celebrated another momentous occasion by getting engaged to girlfriend Cherry Seaborn just before the new year. In August 2018, he revealed that the two had secretly gotten married since then, and in August 2020, the pair welcomed their first child, daughter Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran.
On 19th August 2021, Sheeran announced that his fifth studio album would be called '=' (equals), and the album was released today (29th October).
Ed Sheeran's new album opens with Tides, which features a very un-Ed like sound. His voice sounds so much stronger than it does usually, though the lyrics - which relate to his life and his love for his wife, Cherry Seaborn Sheeran - are Ed through and through; they're personal and loving, and draw from experiences which he has had and memories which he holds dear. This will be a running theme throughout the album, which is quite literally a collection of love songs for his wife and daughter, Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran, who was born in 2020. Immediately, you get the very clear message that Ed Sheeran is back, and he's going to make a mark in the charts.
Shivers, which was released as the second single from the album, was released on 10th September 2021 at midnight. It sounds quite like his 2017 single, Shape Of You (from his third studio album, '÷' (divide), and also quite like I Don't Care, a 2019 collaboration between Sheeran and American artist Justin Bieber. It is an energetic, catchy song and the video features AnnaSophia Robb, an American actress who a lot of Gen-Z have grown up with. She and Sheeran are familiar faces in the video for the new single - the video is crazy, slightly Dali-esque and very fun.
The third track, First Time, is incredibly romantic, personal and beautiful. As previously mentioned, Sheeran uses his memories to craft a song which shows how much he loves Mrs Sheeran and how their life together is perfect. Whilst there is, for a brief few seconds at the beginning, a slightly melancholic tone to the song, it is quickly replaced with adoration.
Ed Sheeran's first single of 2021, Bad Habits, is an overall confession of the bad habits that once plagued a man who has now embraced fatherhood. It is hazy, enigmatic and infectious - I first heard it through TikTok as a teased sound, and ever since then it hasn't left my head. It's an earworm, and I am entirely for it. It's so catchy, and the video - which sees Sheeran as a vampire sporting a pink suit, glitzy eye makeup, fangs and pointed matte black fingernails is a little bit cringy, but brilliant nevertheless. It's fun and you immediately love it and the song which it comes with. As the first single of what is expected to be a fifth album and fourth solo album (Sheeran worked alongside artists like Cardi B and Justin Bieber in 2019 to release No. 6 Collaborations Project), it sets a precedent of wicked songs and cinematic videos, and I can't wait to hear what comes out next.
The fifth song on the album, Overpass Graffiti, has a great toe-tapping beat to it, and is one of those songs that you just want to shout along to. I think it is the first song on the album hat is not as good as it predecessors, however this does not matter as it stands on its own two feet and definitely has its own merits.
The Joker and the Queen is a synonym which I don't think is used very often when referring to a couple - Ed Sheeran calls himself a Joker, whilst his wife is the Queen who could have had "a thousand kings". This lyric goes to show that whilst we might see Sheeran as above us, and musically a king, he sees himself below her, and no more than a joker, who historically have had a low place in court. This song is beautifully crafted, nothing short of a work of art, and one of the songs which I didn't expect to like when I first saw the track listing. It definitely grows on you.
Leave Your Life is interesting, to say the least. The high notes which Sheeran attempts to sing come off well, and the beat is intriguing. The song itself is slower than your average pop song, which could be a gamble, but I expect it to pay off - everything that Sheeran seems to touch turns to gold and tops the charts. The last verse, in particular, is one that I am very fond of, and in fact listened to just those few lines several times over.
With a completely different sound to that which Sheeran has released before, Collide is almost annoyingly infectious; and a recounting of Sheeran's best memories with his wife. I absolutely love how personal this song is - the majority of the previous songs have been personal, but this one in particular just seems more so. It sounds like the kind of song which might be played in a John Green film adaption, though this fact makes it no less awesome. The lyrics are really thoughtful, and tell of a life and memories which some of us can only wish for and dream of.
The ninth song on the album is 2step, and features Sheeran rapping, something which he has previously faced criticism for, however something which I do not have a problem with - his rapping is about the only kind of which I can listen to. I love how he doesn't listen to the haters and stays true to himself and his previous work. It is an earworm, perhaps one of the most unforgettable on the entire album, and is a song which I can imagine will be played in a lot of clubs over the next few months because of its intense, infectious beat.
Whilst it is no secret that Ed Sheeran has an amazing voice, Stop The Rain, I feel, truly displays what he is capable of. It builds very quickly towards an apex which it does not come down from, and it just keeps getting better. It is an uplifting song, inspiring the listener to keep going - to keep pushing - and to not give up. Its sound is matched to what is popular at the moment, which might mean that it will date fairly quickly, but I also would like to point out that it shows how talented of an artist Ed Sheeran is because he can adapt his music to whichever sound is likely to attract the most attention and purchases.
Love In Slow Motion once again follows the running theme of love which has so far been displayed throughout the album. It's simple and beautiful, and is just simply Ed Sheeran - had any other artist released it, I would have said that they were trying to emulate his sound. Sheeran pours himself into his his songs, and that is what makes them so incredible and so successful - they're not just songs that anybody could churn out - no, they're personal.
The track which was released at the same time as the album was announced, Visiting Hours was played at the state funeral of his friend, Michael Gudinski, and I adored the song. Visiting Hours is a song that I can deeply relate to. My dad died of pancreatic cancer when I was ten, and until now, I have never found a song that so perfectly encompasses the kind of pain which I felt then, and still do now. One of the wonderful, magical things about Ed Sheeran as a songwriter is that time and time again, he somehow finds the words which fit so perfectly to what people are feeling inside, and he has done it here again. The song is so beautiful and heartfelt that it is almost too personal to be heard by the public, and I seriously doubt that it will ever appear on an album; this is the sort of song that you play in your bluest hours, and not every time you spin the record or need something to walk to the corner shop to. Ed Sheeran has once again gone above and beyond in his songwriting, perfectly encompassing all of the emotions and thoughts that come with losing a loved one. He has put those feelings into a gorgeous ballad, one that is so raw and emotional that I could not bare to listen to it more than a few times. I cried, Ed cried, and a lot of other people have too, judging by how Twitter and Instagram looked last night as he played it.
Whilst the previous songs have been for his wife, Sandman, the penultimate song on Sheeran's fifth studio album, is for his daughter, Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran, who was born in August 2020. It is a sort of lullaby for her, I think, and is just beautiful. It is a song from a father who is totally in love with his baby girl, and because of this, it is the perfect song for any parent to their child. The imagery which is in it is very creative; of ice-cream snowmen and fish in the sky. It is sweet and innocent, and a great spin on a traditional figure, the Sandman.
The final song on '=' is Be Right Now, and has what I can only describe as an 80s sound - think Tiffany's I Think We're Alone Now (1987). It is the perfect end to a great album, creating an uplifting feeling - a feeling of elation, even. It is amazing the kind of feelings which Ed Sheeran can get through in his music.
Ed Sheeran is one of the bestselling artists in the world. He has sold over half a million records worldwide, and it is because he makes albums like this - where he pours his heart into every single word in every song, and plays them with so much energy that it feels entire stadiums, infecting every single member of the audience, but also the people who are at home. '=', overall, was hugely enjoyable, and there was not one song on it that I didn't like. It is, simply, a love letter to Cherry and Lyra Sheeran, and was described by Sheeran as his "coming of age album". It is easy to see why; here is a man who is happy with his life and his work, and is glad to be back making music, with the prospect of a 2022 tour exciting for the fans and for himself.