“I won’t stop till my name’s in lights at stadium heights, with Damien Rice,” Ed Sheeran sings on 2011’s You Need Me, I Don’t Need You. Today, Sheeran is one of the biggest pop stars in the world, with a best-selling new album, Subtract, which has the clear influence of Irish singer-songwriter Rice shot through it. The fact he just won a huge copyright infringement lawsuit is the icing on the cake. But will he ever stop?
“Consumed as an album, Subtract is almost frustrating. When viewed as a collection of singles, though, it delivers yet another Sheeran masterclass in catchy songwriting.”
We can only hope not. Musical snobs may disparage Sheeran for the airtime he receives relative to the inventiveness of his music, but he proves time and again that he understands the architecture of a good pop song like almost no-one else. The tracks on Subtract represent a classic case in point. Welcome to your soundtrack for the summer.
Consumed as an album, Subtract is almost frustrating. The tone ebbs and flows between soft, acoustic folk and upbeat pop-rock, but never leaves its highly produced, and highly polished, comfort zone. It’s not an unpleasant experience, but it causes a yearning for higher highs and lower lows.
When viewed as a collection of singles, though, the songs on Subtract deliver yet another Sheeran masterclass in catchy songwriting. The melodies simple and pleasant enough to sing along to, the lyrics walking a deft balance between broad appeal and depth. Since 2017’s Divide, Sheeran has demonstrated an uncanny ability to capture universal truths about love, life and loss through song.
The first two tracks, “Boat” and “Salt Water”, actually wouldn’t be out of place on Damien Rice’s 2006 album, 9. Soft, broken guitar chords play romantic strings against Sheeran’s distinctive voice. It’s not until “Eyes Closed” that Sheeran’s latest album injects a little energy, embracing a higher tempo and anthem-like choruses.
“The End of Youth” is one of the album’s strongest tracks, about the loss of a carefree youth and the challenges – and sometimes disappointments – of adulthood. Not at all shrouded in metaphor, it nonetheless encapsulates one of those universal truths that will resonate with long-time Sheeran fans now well into their thirties. It’s also a fabulous demonstration of the fast-paced, rap-inspired lyricism that earned Sheeran acclaim all those years ago.
And yet even that song frustrates through its production. A drum-roll at the drop fails to herald a major shift in production tone, with the same middle-of-the-road niceness maintained throughout. Happily, “Curtains”, another sing-along Sheeran classic, starts with heavier drums and more of a crunchy edge, and delivers a satisfying, stadium-like chorus.
Those (relative) highs soon give way to the softer, more considered final phase of the album. On “Spark”, the Rice-esque folk guitar chords give way to haunting broken piano chords set against fabulous string arrangements.
The final three songs, “Vega“, “Sycamore”and “No Strings”, feel almost half-finished, each clocking in under three minutes. Sycamore, in particular, feels like it’s building to an impressive crescendo before it simply ends.
And despite all of these hangups, the fact remains that each one of these songs feels like a solid addition to pop history. Throughout Subtract, Sheeran’s brand of pop delivers comforting levels of familiarity in a rejuvenating, if not exciting, form factor. “We hope the spark survives,” he sings appropriately on Spark. The spark’s still there, Ed.
