Ed Sheeran: Play review – subcontinental sounds and shards of darkness – but still unmistakably him | Ed Sheeran

As he factors out on the opening monitor of Play, Ed Sheeran has now been round a very long time. It’s 20 years since he self-released his debut album and 14 since he signed to a serious label and set about changing into probably the most commercially profitable British artist of his age: lengthy sufficient that we’re now seeing the looks of pop stars who declare him as a formative affect. (Singer-songwriter Myles Smith, who was simply into his teenagers when Sheeran launched his breakthrough album +, even performs a type of little acoustic guitars which have lengthy been Sheeran’s trademark.) It’s actually lengthy sufficient that anybody with even a passing curiosity is aware of what to anticipate when Ed Sheeran releases a brand new album.Ed Sheeran: Play. {Photograph}: APSheeran’s success is predicated on a sure dependability: it doesn’t appear to matter who he works with – Pharrell Williams, Eric Clapton, Eminem, the Nationwide’s Aaron Dessner – the outcomes all the time by some means sound precisely like Ed Sheeran. Whether or not you see that as proof of a melodic signature so sturdy it rings out whatever the musical setting or a failure of inventive creativeness relies on whether or not you’re amongst those that contributed to his cumulative gross sales figures of 200m, or a part of the vociferous cadre who view him because the embodiment of all that’s unsuitable with music. The latter camp will get a shout-out on Play’s prosaically titled opening monitor Opening, primarily an older, extra battered counterpart to You Want Me, I Don’t Want You, the 2011 monitor that bullishly asserted his bona fides: “Not the pop star they are saying they like,” Sheeran raps.Stable, reliable: these are adjectives one may apply to Play. His final two albums, 2023’s muted – and Autumn Variations, had been made with Dessner, the co-architect of Taylor Swift’s folksy lockdown albums: the previous was Sheeran’s most acclaimed file critically, however the public appeared much less satisfied. Play has a way of reassuring the shareholders about it: the massive story is that Sheeran went to Goa to finish it, however – as with single Azizam’s diversion into Persian music – the sounds of the subcontinent which have soaked into the tip product really feel like window dressing.There’s conventional Indian percussion right here and there, most notably on Heaven, plus Hindi and Punjabi vocals and a visitor look from Bengali singer Arijit Singh on Sapphire, however none of it actually overwhelms the tracks’ important Ed Sheeran-ness: the previous is sweetly emotive, the latter the type of uptempo Ed Sheeran track that’s a little bit too wanting to please and finally ends up barely grating. Tablas and Hindi lyrics or not, nobody is ever going to marvel who made them, significantly after they’re scattered amongst extra conventional fare, which ranges in high quality from ho-hum (the acoustic guitar-led ruminations of Outdated Cellphone) to exceptionally nicely crafted: the ruthlessly efficient energy balladry of Digicam and The Vow, the lo-fi piano of In Different Phrases, the latter one other contribution to a now-teetering pile of Sheeran songs which may have been designed for newlywed first dances.Ed Sheeran: Sapphire – videoAnd the tracks recorded in India really feel much less placing than two songs made nearer to dwelling. A co-write with Fred Once more, Don’t Look Down, fruitfully locations Sheeran’s vocal amid luminous rave synths and, finally, a pounding home beat. And spotlight Symmetry opens with looped Indian percussion and vocals however shortly floats off in a distinct path, involving spectral voices and heaving sub-bass. It’s not a radical reinvention, however you sense an artist pushing softly at boundaries.That mentioned, Play is just not incapable of springing real surprises: it comes as fairly a jolt to listen to Sheeran calling somebody “a prick” on A Little Extra, then following it up with a line that undoubtedly qualifies as a sick burn: “And in your dad’s sake, please transfer out your dad’s place.” The emotional temperature of Sheeran’s music to this point has ranged from sorrowful to lovestruck. He’s by no means sounded indignant. It’s unclear who the track is geared toward, or what they’ve finished to rile him, however on A Little Extra, he appears genuinely furious: “I hate you … at some point we’ll all be useless however between from time to time I by no means need to see you once more.” It’s each surprising and weirdly bracing, its impression amplified by subtly efficient electrical piano and post-Amy Winehouse horns.A curiously darkish emotional undercurrent retains effervescent up all through Play. There are allusions to Sheeran’s circle of associates contracting, to “leeches” and his coronary heart being damaged by “family members”. There are references to Sheeran’s much-noted skilled drive that make it sound paranoid and compulsive – “if I look down I can see replacements … on this world there’s no stress-free” – and there’s Slowly, ostensibly only a track about lacking his spouse when she’s away “for a few days” that expresses itself in such excessive phrases as to really feel fairly disturbing: “kill me slowly”, “that is knife-in-the-heart love”, “I’m dying alive”.In fact, these tinges of darkness are unlikely to impression on Play’s industrial success. All its previous singles have already got streaming figures that appear to be telephone numbers. But it surely does imply you permit it questioning what on earth is happening: the final feeling one expects to get from an Ed Sheeran album.This week Alexis listened toGruff Rhys – Taro #1 + #2A spotlight from his new Welsh-language album Dim Probs: the cocktail of laid-back west coast rock meets motorik drums plus new wave-y sax is a peculiar one which nonetheless slips down easily.