Ed Sheeran’s –, pronounced “subtract,” is, as its title suggests, an album defined by absence, primarily as it relates to the scant amount of backing percussion or electric amplification throughout, but also in regard to its total lack of commercial sheen. Save for some radio fodder like the Max Martin and Shellback-helmed “Eyes Closed,” the English singer-songwriter’s sixth studio album hardly feels like it’s taking a major stab at pop virality.
The majority of the album’s 14 songs were co-written and produced by the National’s Aaron Dessner, who assisted Taylor Swift make a pivot toward a more intimate, stripped down sound on her cottage-core diptych Folklore and Evermore. Sheeran’s album might have reached that platonic ideal if the songwriting at the center of these carefully arranged tracks was up to snuff, or if its austere artistic gambit was executed with more vigor or dynamism than is displayed on songs like the limp “Dusty” and “Borderline.”
No matter how much aesthetic cosplay Sheeran is willing to engage in, though, he’s still pumping out the same cheese-filled anthems that have plagued his previous albums. “Kaleidoscope love, yeah, that is you and me/Forever changing, we make life interesting,” he sings on the suffocatingly saccharine “Colourblind,” which compares newfound romance to different pigments on an oil canvas. And things only get worse from there.
On “Life Goes On,” Sheeran’s knack for turning commonplace statements into universal truths falls decidedly flat, as the song’s chorus finds him musing that “easy come, hard go, then life goes on,” an insight so obvious that it comes off slightly condescending. This same “shit happens” worldview pops again on the sedated “Vega”—“One door closes then one opens, gotta keep the focus”—and “Eyes Closed,” where he notes how “everything changes, nothing’s the same, except the truth is now you’re gone/and life just goes on.”
In each of those instances, the ever-changing tides of everyday living are hardly explored with much complexity. Like the rest of –, Sheeran’s lyrical references serve as little more than a hollow formality, something to suggest a richer artistic vision than what’s actually on display.
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Tell me you didn’t listen to the album properly without telling me you didn’t listen to the album properly.
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Slant who?
Slant is that :Zzzzz
I doubt any of us could completely rewrite our idea for an album after having gone through what he did in his personal life. He wasn’t trying to make hits. He made it for himself. Music heals.
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No way you actually listen and review music. This review is a pathetic personal attack not a record review. Clearly you did zero research on the narrative for the record because you are lazy.
The author of this article probably didn’t do a whole lotta research. Sheeran wasn’t trying to write another pop album, so bashing him for the fact that he didn’t is kinda pointless. And even if he didn’t write one, he still explores topics that are close to pretty much everyone, we’ve all lost someone dear to us, for me it happened a week ago so this is something that’s been helping me heal.
Lol what
Wow! I can’t imagine writing a review and having absolutely zero idea about the album or artist. This is so lazy it’s shocking. And why would Slant publish this garbage review?! Having an opinion is one thing but having zero idea about what you are talking about is another. Disappointing to see.
Try actually listening to the album next time, or maybe even doing some research on the subject matter – isn’t that your whole job?