Album Review: Ed Sheeran – “+”

We’re all now fairly familiar with ginger haired singer songwriter, Ed Sheeran. From playing small house parties to sitting in the top 10 of the charts – The A Team spending 3 months there and newest single ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ hitting the top 3 within the first week. Although I am not particularly a fan of acoustic, let alone slow songs, I decided to give everyone’s new favourite popstar’s ‘+’, a go (notice the lack of ‘debut’ due to Ed already having 2 previous self released albums, a self titled released in 2006 and ‘Want Some?’ released a year later).

The album starts off with ‘The A-Team’ about a prostitute with a drug habit, topics that are usually frowned upon by an older generation and deemed as ‘cool’ when sung by artists such as 50 Cent who glamourise such situations. However, Sheeran makes the idea more heartfelt with his soft vocals and guitar. He manages to pick up the pace slightly, with the next song ‘Drunk’ which no doubt some teenagers will pick up as homage to themselves with the line ‘maybe I’ll get a drunk again’ as a way to deal with some of life’s problems.

As with two of the songs off ‘+’, ‘Lego House’ and ‘Grade 8,’ you could easily imagine some boy bands with bad hair cuts and worse dance moves (think hand on hearts, other hand raised balled into a fist being bought down). Think Boyzone and maybe Savage Garden for ‘Lego House’. But this doesn’t mean I am discarding them, unlike a few of the other tracks off the album that could be too James Blunt-esque (a bit boring, for those who don’t understand) for some, including a song about an unborn baby which, having made that comment, is surprisingly good.

Having heard some of Ed’s previous, and rougher versions of songs, such as ‘YNMIDNY’, it’s hard not to wince at the over production (“more mainstream!” “sellout!” you cry out) that he has, regrettably, let take over this album. However, the song that is basically a big ‘fuck you’ to his old record company and has been given a make-over, sort of similar to that of his SB.TV version, minus the cover of 50 Cent’s ‘In Da Club’ and a rendition of Laid Blacks ‘Red’ in a Jamaican accent, which I personally think is a shame, is actually still really fucking good. If the new verse’s line of “like I’m up and coming like I’m fucking in an elevator” plastered over everyone’s, and mine, Facebook statuses is anything to go by, then Sheeran’s onto a winner. This just goes to show that, despite some of Sheeran’s more bleak tracks that have me pressing the skip button faster than the actual song, he has some gem one liner lyrics.

Overall, the album is a little bland for my taste, but there is no arguing that Ed Sheeran deserves, at the very least a clap on the back, for getting where he is today, pretty much on his own terms. His latest tour has practically sold out, so he must be doing something right.

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