MusicReview

Ed Sheeran: Subtract – Open-hearted, honest and schmaltz-free

Sincerity without sentimentality can go a surprisingly long way on the star’s fifth solo album

- (Subtract)
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Artist: Ed Sheeran
Genre: Pop
Label: Asylum/Atlantic Records

It has been a tumultuous few years for Ed Sheeran. If you’ve managed to watch his new documentary, The Sum of It All, yet, you’ll be aware that the saying co-opted by his mate Stormzy for his own album title – “heavy is the head that wears the crown” – rings true of the thirtysomething star, who has found that being at the top can bring both joy and anguish. Along with the happy occasion of the birth of his second child, Sheeran has recently contended with his wife Cherry’s tumour diagnosis, the sudden death of his best friend Jamal Edwards, and another high-profile copyright-infringement court case that questioned his integrity as a songwriter.

As he has always traded in heart-on-sleeve emotion, it’s a safe bet that Sheeran’s fifth solo album will be a reflection on the recent turmoil of his personal life. Indeed, the very first line of the album, from the tender acoustic ballad Boat – “I need to find elements to remind me there’s beauty when it’s bleak” – is indicative of what to expect. Still, amid the trauma there is resilience; on the same song he vows that “the waves won’t break my boat”.

Not least among the several songs that address the difficulties Sheeran has had to contend with is End of Youth. A tribute to Edwards, the song explores the way grief and pain can change a person. Vega openly contends with the worry and stress of his wife’s illness, but he flips the script on No Strings – surely a new first-dance contender at weddings – by paying tribute to their bond, noting that “if we make it through this year, then nothing can break us”.

It is, indubitably, a more lyrically interesting album for Sheeran. Although he has freely harnessed schmaltz and overearnestness to a cringeworthy degree in his previous work, these real-world hardships have informed his lyric sheet for the better; Boat and the beautiful, acoustically fluttering Sycamore, another track that contemplates the impact of Cherry’s illness, are among the best he has written.

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The problem with the Suffolk musician, however, has always been not how well he can write a song but how dull his music can be. With the exception of a handful of punchy singles, Sheeran has admirably managed to wrestle a globally successful career out of being the kind of musician you might nod to if he were busking on Grafton Street but probably not rifle through your pockets for spare change to throw in his guitar case.

There is a niggling sense that he has not mined his partnership with the producer Aaron Dessner, of The National – the man who lent indie credibility to Taylor Swift – to its full potential here; although there are several pop fillers that will sate those Sheeran fans who love songs like the mawkish Perfect, it remains an ultimately safe-sounding acoustic and piano-based record. The soft-edged experimentation of Dusty and the dynamic Curtains are about as musically precarious as it gets.

Still, this is probably the most open-hearted album of Sheeran’s career. Sincerity without sentimentality seems to go a surprisingly long way to papering over the cracks.

Lauren Murphy

Lauren Murphy

Lauren Murphy is a freelance journalist and broadcaster. She writes about music and the arts for The Irish Times