Album Review: ÷ - Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran is an English singer-songwriter from West Yorkshire. He began recording music in 2004, releasing 'Spinning Man'. Five years later he released another EP, 'You Need Me', and started getting a fair bit of media coverage, which led to him being invited to tour with Example. He then released the iconic 'Loose Change' EP which featured, his soon to be, debut single 'The A-Team'. Throughout 2010 he was noticed by more media outputs and his fan base grew dramatically. He self-released two EP's, 'Ed Sheeran: Live At The Bedford' and 'Songs I Wrote With Amy', in 2010. In 2011, he independently released 'No. 5 Collaborations Project' EP, which featured a variety of grime artists. Later that year, he was signed to Asylum Records.

During the Summer of 2011, 'The A-Team' was announced as Sheeran's debut single, it entered the UK charts at number 3 and was named as the best selling debut single, and the overall eighth-best selling single of 2011. The second single, 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You', peaked at number 4 in the UK Singles Chart. Sheeran released '+' at the end of 2011, it debuted at number 1 in the UK Albums Chart and became the second best-selling debut album. 'Lego House' followed the album as Sheeran's third single, with the fourth, 'Drunk', coming shortly after in February 2012. Ed also won Best British Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act of The Year at the 2012 Brit Awards. The fifth single, 'Small Bump' did not do as well in the charts, peaking at only number 25 on the UK Singles Chart. The sixth, and final single from '+', was 'Give Me Love'. Throughout the success of his album, and prior, Sheeran wrote for a variety of artist's including One Direction, Olly Murs and Taylor Swift.

In 2013, 'I See Fire' was the first single released from Ed's upcoming second album. It was featured in the end credits of 'The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug'. 'Sing', the lead single from the album, was released in 2014 to create hype for the album. 'X' was then released in the Summer of 2014 with the second and third singles, 'Don't' and 'Thinking Out Loud', following close after. At the beginning of 2015, Ed released a remix of 'Bloodstream' as the fourth single, featuring Rudimental. Not long after, 'Photograph' was released as the fifth and final single from 'X'. Ed Sheeran then went on a hiatus, taking a long, deserved break from the music industry.

At the end of 2016, however, he changed his social media profiles to a light blue picture. Then to kick the new year off with a bang, he uploaded a video of him holding a piece of paper saying "New Music Coming Friday". True to his word, he released two singles, 'Shape Of You' and 'Castle On The Hill'. These entered the UK charts at number one and two, the first time in history an artist has taken the top two UK chart positions with new songs. '÷' was then released on the 3rd March 2017.

(Note: It was so difficult writing a small biography on Ed because he has sooooo many achievements! I literally had to focus on the music, and missed so much out).

Album Track Listing:

1. Eraser

2. Castle On The Hill

3. Dive

4. Shape Of You

5. Perfect

6. Galway Girl

7. Happier

8. New Man

9. Hearts Don't Break Around Here

10. What Do I Know?

11. How Would You Feel (Paean)

12. Supermaket Flowers

13. Barcelona

14. Bibia Be Ye Ye

15. Nancy Mulligan

16. Save Myself

OK, so to be honest, I have been putting off listening to Ed's new album because I heard such mixed reviews about it. By mixed I mean everyone said it was amazing but some also thought it wasn't his best work. I was also trying to wait till the hype over it would decrease, but I got impatient!

So, I heard only two songs before the album came out, 'Shape Of You' and 'Castle On The Hill', I mean how could you not hear them?! Loved them both, think I preferred 'Shape Of You' the most but I don't think it's an 'Ed' song, whereas 'Castle On The Hill' is. I do understand that 'Shape Of You' was written for someone else and I am glad he decided to sing and release it instead!

I listened through the album, and right now I think my favourite song is 'Dive'. Ed's voice is friggin amazing, I absolutely love it. His voice now has a gritty tone to it and it compliments the song so much. I love the beat of it and it's really catchy! Another song I really enjoyed was 'Eraser', purely for the lyrics. I love the message he's portraying and when he repeats the line 'welcome to the new show, I guess you know I've been away', it shows the connection of his music to his real life.

There are a couple love songs that had to be thrown in there otherwise it wouldn't have been an Ed album. 'Hearts Don't Break Around Here' and 'How Would You Feel (Paean)' don't stand out to me that much, but 'Perfect' is incredible. I love the lyrics and the added strings in it makes it seem even more like a love ballad.

Aside from love songs, there had to be some sad ones. 'Happier', 'Supermarket Flowers' and 'Save Myself' I believe are the emotion tuggers of the album, especially 'Supermarket Flowers'. I love how raw and emotional Ed's voice sounds in all three of these songs.

The other six songs, 'Galway Girl', 'New Man', 'What Do I Know?'. 'Barcelona', 'Bibia Be Ye Ye', and 'Nancy Mulligan', are all more upbeat and different to Ed's usual sound.. which is good! They are all so catchy and the lyrics are great! One song I did go and look up was 'Bibia Be Ye Ye' as I wanted to know the meaning of those words. With minimal research I found he wrote it with Fuse ODG in Ghana, and 'Bibia Be Ye Ye' means 'All Will Be Well'. I think it's great that Ed has sung in a few other languages as well. It shows the diversity of the album, and reflects his time off from music.

I do encourage everyone to go and listen/buy this album (if you haven't already!). Little bit gutted I didn't get tickets to his tour, but if you (or anyone you know) is going have an AMAZING time!!

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