I love Ed Sheeran. Not the love one would have for a parent or a child or somebody you’re co-habiting/bumping uglies with but the kind of love you feel when you love a silly little bit of music or the lyrics from a song so much that it hurts.
That little ginger bloke from Cornwall won my heart not just because of a “gingers stick together” clause we’re born with but also because his album + (pronounced, PLUS – this is like the time when Prince wanted to be know as that little squiggly single or the artist formerly known as) became one of my most played albums with me still defaulting to for musical pleasure a good two years after its initial release. Packed to the sleeve with lyrically quirky songs about love, life and relationships, + catapulted Sheeran from sleeping on friends sofas and styling his ginger hair with VO5 wax, to travelling the world multiple times over. After supporting his BFF Taylor Swift on her US tour, covering Beyonce songs on the radio and publically humiliating Ms Ellie Goulding with his song “Don’t” the ginger one has dropped his second album, X (pronounced, MULTIPLY – can you see where this is going?)
With a more soulful sound to it than + and boasting more mature lyrics, X has overtaken The 1975 debut album as my most listened to on Spotify with me not being able to get enough X through my earphones. “More mature?” you say, Ed is only 23, but it seems that the length of time in between + and X has taught our favourite ginger friend a lot about the trials and tribulations of love and this shows through some of the more emotive songs on the album.
Thinking Out Loud is one of those songs that kicks you in the metaphorical balls, plucks at the strings of your heart as though they belong on a guitar and has the sort of sound to it that you could imagine it being used in a film as the guy and the gal finally “get it on”. I’m not talking Eminem and Brittany Murphy style against a wall in an alley in 8 Mile “getting it on”, I’m thinking more along the lines of Baby and Jonny Castle in Dirty Dancing in his “great” room and they both make full use of exploring one anothers bodies with their hands. This is more of a grown up sound for Ed and is most definitely the “Kiss Me” of the new album (complete with a goosebump inducing gravelly snarl leading into the second to last chorus).
This album is closley on the heels of +, given a million more listens and a good few sing alongs with my headphones on I can see the likes of “Photograph”, “Bloodstream” and “I’m a Mess” being right up there with the likes of “Kiss Me“, “Little Bird” and “Wake Me Up”.
I love this album, it’s my go-to album of the moment, whenever I put music on this is it.
I think me and my friend bored another friend the other day as we were just raving about how much we love Ed’s music and how good this album was. Oops.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this album after hearing “Sing” which isn’t my favourite song of his, I thought if the whole album was similar to that it wouldn’t be my cup of tea, so glad it wasn’t. Photograph and Nina are my favourites currently. :)