When asked to describe himself as an artist, Ed Sheeran proudly admitted to being an “acoustic balladeer who sings soppy love songs to teenage girls”. Yet in the same interview with The Telegraph, he also proclaims that he “doesn’t make music for critics”. These two statements seem to conflict with each other, and the latter seems to be an attempt to justify his artistic credibility for writing the teeny bopper love songs he’s know for. Yet, with the English singer-songwriter’s sophomore release, x, he is able to achieve the best of both worlds.
To recap, it’s been three years since his breakout debut album, +. The artfully minimalistic pop album eventually hit the top of the charts worldwide, spawning hits such as “Lego House”, and the Grammy-nominated “The A Team”. He spent this time touring America and the world both as an opening act to huge artists such as Taylor Swift and headlining a tour of major venues. He also casually penned a few hits for Ms. Swift and One Direction. Far from a lucky streak, this new album continues the trend of success.
The album’s lead single, “Sing” is an infectiously groove that clearly takes its influence from 70’s funk and disco groups (the Nile Rogers influence is strong in this one). It’s immediately obvious that this is the production work of Pharrell, the king of musical throwback Thursdays. This is the fourth major hit that Mr. Williams has been involved in within the past year, and it features all the characteristics of his work: groovy rhythm work, insanely catchy vocal hooks, and ultra-tight harmonies. As always, it’s a perfect execution of reviving musical stylings that have been relatively dead within mainstream pop for decades now.
Throughout the rest of the album, Sheeran proves that he has a wide variety of influences, giving reminders of past artists while staying original to himself. There’s the bluesy “Thinking Out Loud”, sounding like a cut tossed from a John Mayer album, soulful guitar solo included. “Runaway” takes it’s influences from N’ Sync and the Backstreet Boys, yet “Don’t” is reminiscent of the Arctic Monkeys. “The Man” sees him rapping about road life a la Eminem, and pulling it off surprisingly well. And I can’t put my finger exactly on why, but the brooding “Nina” seems to call out to Toto.
It’s almost an insult to just refer to Sheeran as a singer-songwriter, because he’s a fairly impressive guitarist in his own right. As with his previous album most of the instruments on the album were played either by Sheeran himself, or producer Jake Gosling. “Tenerife Sea” and “Bloodstream” both feature some fancy fretwork; nothing overly complicated, yet still impressive by pop’s standards. Of course, he is really able to show off in live performances, creating lush backing tracks using just his voice, his guitar, and a looping pedal (check out the live version of “Don’t”, which completely blows away the studio version that was amazing in it’s own right).
Of course, there are quite a few overdubs on the album, however these are kept in check to create a vibrant yet minimalistic soundscape. This is clearly the touch of Rick Rubin, the third major producer involved in the album. It’s a smart move that helps the album stand out from the field of overproduced electronic-pop that is dominating the charts nowadays.
Arguably the most important part of a pop song is the lyrics; they mainly just need to be catchy, no real meaning needed. While x’s lyrics are far from deep philosophical meanderings, they are able to comment on relationships and sex without being overly cheesy, sappy, or clichéd.
The one major flaw of this album is that the performances are a tad cold and too perfect. I wasn’t able to detect any notable auto-tune on Ed’s voice, which is a good thing. And while the main instrumentation on show are acoustic guitars, pianos, and vocals, the performances are polished slick (including an annoyingly over-compressed piano on “Nina”). A bit more edge and slight imperfections would really amplify the more dramatic moments in the music.
Yet despite this, Ed Sheeran has made an album that exceeded expectations for him. Coming off of a successful first album, he lived up to the hype and delivered a solid pop album that should stand up on its own for many years to come. The minimalistic yet varied production marries perfectly simplistic and meaningful lyrics to create a memorable collection of songs that is well worth a listen.
Hailing from central New Jersey, Jared Sokoloff is a current Radio/TV/Film Communications major at The College of New Jersey. As part of the school’s Lion’s Television, he produces their flagship entertainment program, Kendall Live. He can typically be found hanging out with friends, playing the guitar, running, listening to music, or naming all of his social media sites after himself. He is also this site’s resident expert on Bruce Springsteen.