Ed Sheeran. Image: Instagram/@teddysphotos
Ed Sheeran has announced that his upcoming album which he titled using just these punctuation marks, “-”, to be released on May 5, 2023.
The English singer-songwriter revealed on his Instagram account on Wednesday, March 1 that the album, which he described to be “honest and true,” has been in the works for a “decade,” until several events in the past year changed the way he “viewed music and art,”
He claimed this ultimately replaced 10 years’ worth of work.
“I had been working on ‘Subtract’ for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album, writing and recording hundreds of songs with a clear vision of what I thought it should be. Then at the start of 2022, a series of events changed my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I viewed music and art,” he said.
“Writing songs is my therapy. It helps me make sense of my feelings. I wrote without thought of what the songs would be, I just wrote whatever tumbled out. And in just over a week I replaced a decade’s worth of work with my deepest darkest thoughts,” he further explained.
Sheeran went on to detail some of the most life-changing moments of his life including the death of his best friend, his court battle over the Marvin Gaye plagiarism case, and his then-pregnant wife getting a tour.
“Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumor, with no route to treatment until after the birth. My best friend Jamal, a brother to me, died suddenly, and I found myself standing in court defending my integrity and career as a songwriter. I was spiraling through fear, depression and anxiety. I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air,” he said.
Despite releasing several hit songs through the years, Sheeran admitted that the album feels like a “trapdoor” to his soul, where it’s a record that is meant to stay true to himself. He also noted that the record is “last February’s diary entry” and his way of “making sense of it.”
“As an artist, I didn’t feel like I could credibly put a body of work into the world that didn’t accurately represent where I am and how I need to express myself at this point in my life. This album is purely that. It’s opening the trapdoor into my soul. For the first time, I’m not trying to craft an album people will like, I’m merely putting something out that’s honest and true to where I am in my adult life,” he added.
Minutes after the announcement, the “Shape of You” hitmaker released the trailer of his upcoming album which showed him walking on the beach, as the tracklist was unveiled on the sand.
The record will contain 14 songs in total, namely, “Boat,” “Saltwater,” “Eyes Closed,” “Life Goes On,” “Dusty,” “End of Youth,” “Colorblind,” “Curtains,” “Borderline,” “Spark,” “Vega,” “Sycamore,” “No Strings,” and, “The Hills of Aberfeldy.”
The upcoming album comes four months after Sheeran announced his temporary hiatus from the entertainment industry, where he revealed that he would return in 2023.
The award-winning singer-songwriter is best known for his hit songs “Perfect,” “Photograph,” “Thinking Out Loud,” “Castle on the Hill,” and, “Bad Habits,” among many others. EDV