Billboard-Ed dives into the immersive emotional bathtub – there he and his folk pop are much heavier in the stomach, but also surprisingly good.
A new Ed Sheeran is dawning, because the Minus album follows Plus, Mal, Istgleich and Geteil. This finally closes the Mathematical series in our minds as the defining pop culture phenomenon it was for anyone remotely young enough in the 2010s. Ed, beloved Irish singer-songwriter type of lad and hopeless romantic, recorded SUBSTRACT in the light and especially shadow of difficult personal experiences. His wife was seriously ill, a good friend died, and you can tell that. SUBSTRACT is quieter, more melancholic, less danceable than DIVIDE or its numerous hits like “Bad Habits” with its acoustic guitars, slow vocals and lyrics that revolve around grief, loss and regret. There is audibly much more to it, SUBSTRACT is a long dive into emotions.
“Like the clouds gripped my face / Saying ‘It’s alright to run from all this pain’ […] Kiss me now, salt water,” he describes how that feels. But that has something, and more than just a right to exist. Even if it’s a lot heavier on the stomach and thematically ventures into deeper waters, has a completely different viscosity than the well-known Billboard Folksong Ed, that’s by no means a – haha – minus. But of course there is also hope, as much as Ed needs to be. “Easy come, hard go / And then life goes on” is a one-liner that probably has to be experienced to appreciate its simplicity.
But that’s SUBSTRACT, an immersive emotional bathtub – actually the ordinary Sheeran, but better than ever.