Jack reviews an album he actually likes
I should mention that I wrote all this shit in July and can’t be bothered
to update most of it. So, let’s all pretend that its summer again and that Ed
Sheeran’s album came out a couple of weeks ago. Here we go:
This is Ed Sheeran.
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Wave to the people, Ed |
You might remember him from his 2011 album,
+ and sad songs such as “The A-Team”. It
is now 2014 and Ed is back with his second studio album,
X. According to
Wiki this
project is pronounced ‘multiply’, meaning the title is actually punctuation.
Brilliant.
There were times during the Sheeranmania of 2011, when I
felt like the only person in the country who didn’t buy into the hype.
+ was not a good album, and aside from
“You Need Me, I Don’t Need You”, it was an album of generic love songs. Despite my objections,
+
performed pretty well in the album charts and
X isn’t doing too badly either. Presently, [remember. It’s July………I
think England might win the World Cup this year.] Ed has been sitting atop the
chart for
eight
consecutive weeks. Not since the salad days of
James Blunt’s Back
to Bedlam, have we seen a male solo act dominate the album
charts with such extreme prejudice. Across the pond,
X managed encouraging first week
sales
and has remained in the top twenty until now [#27 as of 21 Nov. 14]. Along with
Adele and One Direction, Ed Sheeran is a founding member of what is increasingly
looking like the
Third
British Invasion. Even the fucking Vamps
are were getting love
Stateside.
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Apparently people have still been buying James Blunt albums |
Ed’s increased reputation has allowed him to call on a higher
calibre of producers on this new album. The most notable of these being Rick
Rubin, who contributes to three tracks. As expected, Rubin’s minimalistic
production on tracks such as “Tenerife Sea”, suits Ed, who is no stranger to
minimalism himself. Rick
Rubin also produced the entirety of Jake Bugg’s last album with less
interesting results.
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Rick Rubin - certified Anglophile |
With regards to the production, Pharrell’s two tracks will
raise the most eyebrows, due to how far removed they are from Ed’s usual
musical style. The first is
X’s lead
single, “Sing”, a catchy, disco-influenced R&B song, which is reminiscent of
Justin Timberlake’s
early
work with Pharrell. “Sing” provided the perfect re-introduction to Ed
Sheeran after his virtual disappearance from the music scene in 2011. “Sing”
reminded us that he can sing, rap and write catchy songs. I much prefer the music
of Sex Ed, he’s a lot more fun than Serious, Socially-Conscious Ed. I
appreciate that homelessness is a serious issue, but dreary songs about women
of the streets weren’t going to fly off the shelves. “Sing” is Ed’s
first
number one single in Britain and a testament to the power of mildly selling
out.
Pharrell’s second contribution is “Runaway”, which concerns
Ed’s troubled home life as a young man. Many of the songs on + were about a breakup, yet X feels like the more personal album.
Tracks such as “Runaway” give the listener a more intimate portrayal of Ed’s
personal life and formative years. This song deals with the breakdown of the
relationship between Ed and his father. This is another disco-influenced beat,
which further showcases the versatility of Sheeran on this album, as he
delivers verses about the relationship and another catchy hook. ‘I've known it
for a long time / Daddy wakes up to a drink at nine / Disappearing all night /
I don’t wanna know where he's been lying’. Despite the depressing subject
matter, “Runaway” could easily be another top-twenty single for Ed.
Like the songs of Mark Foster and the People, this is a track
about a troubling episode, delivered over an upbeat instrumental. It is only
once you properly listen to the track’s content do you realise the true nature
of the song. I am hoping to coin The
Foster
the People Effect
as the socially accepted expression for this phenomenon; so, remember where you
heard it first.
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Not many people know
that this song is about a teenage serial killer |
“Don’t” is the second single from the album and rumours
abound about the subject of the track. Ed discusses a short-lived relationship
with a fellow musician who cheated on him; his refusal to name the lady in
question, only adds to the mystery. Rick Rubin and Benny Blanco, are on
production duty. Strange bedfellows indeed. This combination somehow creates the
best song on the album. There is a fair amount of singing on this track, but I’d
credit the song to Rapping Ed. Which is good, because I quite like Rapping Ed.
Like any good rap song about the ladies he begins with the
immortal lines, ‘I met this
girl’. Ed’s style of rapping always borders on singing, and his style of
singing usually borders on rapping. This benefits songs such as “Don’t” because
he can express his emotions through changes in vocal tone; especially when he
half sings lines like, ‘It's not like we were both on tour / We were staying on
the same fucking hotel floor’. Singing Ed handles the hook and interpolates the
chorus from Lucy Pearl’s
Don’t
Mess With My Man, to great effect. It is surprising that “Don’t” didn’t
perform better on the charts, it’s catchy shit.
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The quality of
X
came as a surprise. I had expected Ed to play it safe for his second album and
keep mining the well of sadness for songs about struggling with fame and
heartbreak. The usual subject matter for such a
project. There is
far greater variation of subject matter than expected, such as ‘Bloodstream’,
where Ed describes a night when he took MDMA. The most interesting song is
‘Afire Love’, where Sheeran talks about his experiences growing up around his
Alzheimer’s-striken grandfather. This
X’s
equivalent of “A-Team”, as he details how the disease affected his entire
family. The lyrics are both beautiful and tragic, ‘And my father told me
"son / It's not his fault he doesn't know your face / And you're not the
only one’. There is a clear sense that Sheeran has built his impression of his
grandfather from second-hand information, relayed to him by his other family
members. “Afire Love” is one of Sheeran’s most powerful songs and demonstrates
that his skill as a songwriter.
Sheeran’s writing has always been one of his strongest
assets and he showcases his talents throughout X. The influence of hip-hop is very noticeable in the way he writes
lyrics. They are detailed and usually focus on the minutiae of the stories
which he tells. On “Nina” he describes how, ‘every weekend in the winter /
You'd be wearing my hoodie / With drawstrings pulled tight’. It is these small
details that creates immersion and makes for interesting stories. Much of his
singing is fast-paced and contains many more words than you’d expect to hear in
an acoustic song. The rapid delivery and wordy lyrics make many of these songs
feel like acoustic-rap hybrids. The rapping itself is good and I feel that
Sheeran could have made himself a good career for himself with straight
rapping. He says on “Take it Back”, he’s not a rapper; but sometimes he sure
does act like one.
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Including beef
apparently |
Unfortunately, it isn’t all MDMA and Pharrell Williams, as
the second half of
X fails to live up
to the quality of the first. One such tracks is “Thinking Out Loud”, which is a
standard ballad and is described by Ed as a
‘walking
down the aisle song’. It features lyrics like ‘and darling I will be loving
you till we're 70 / And baby, my heart could still fall as hard at 23’. Of
course, ballads such as these form the bedrock of Ed Sheeran’s music catalogue
and it would have been strange for his album not to include any. However, this
track lacks the imagination and passion displayed on earlier songs. This
criticism can also be applied to “I’m a Mess”, another ballad, which Ed
wrote
in the shower and describes how much he loves his girlfriend. If these two songs
were replaced with superior bonus tracks like
“Even My Dad Does Sometimes”, a track about
his troubled home life. Further, “I See Fire”, is like “Thinking Out Loud”, but
with a quirky instrumental and better lyrics. Replacing these tracks would have
improved the album and removed two of its weakest songs.
X is Ed Sheeran’s
strongest project to date. It is a cohesive and personal project, in which all
the songs provide an insight into the singer’s life. The songwriting and production
are strong and the hooks are much improved from his debut. This album took Ed
three years to complete and the effort has certainly benefited the quality of X. Therefore, I award this album 7 out of 10.
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all for my review
of Ed’s next album, #.