Finished listening to Ed Sheeran’s ÷ album. I think that the 4 tracks on the deluxe edition really should have been included on the standard edition because they’re better than some of the ones there and excluding them means a slower bpm on the standard edition because there are so many slow songs on it.
My favourite songs on the album in descending order are:
1. ‘Save Myself’ which reminds me of ‘One’
2. ‘Dive’ which reminds me of ‘Thinking Out Loud’
3. ‘Perfect’ which reminds me of ‘Photograph’
‘Perfect’ also has a melody which reminds me of Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron & Wine. Currently leaning towards ‘Save Myself’ as my favourite song on ÷ because of how good and brutally honest the lyrics are. Just the (below) opening line alone is enough to take my breath away and leave me in awe of the songwriting talents behind this song.
“I gave all my oxygen to people that could breath
I gave away my money and now we don’t even speak”
I checked the credits for ‘Save Myself’ and it was written by Labrinth :O No wonder the lyrics are equally compelling as Labrinth’s own ‘Jealous’. It’s a pity (and a mistake in my opinion) that this song is only on the deluxe edition of the album which means not everyone will hear it.
The other two ballads ‘How Would You Feel (Paean)’ and ‘Supermarket Flowers’ are good too, with ‘Supermarket Flowers’ beng about the death of Ed’s grandmother, written from the perspective of his mother. It adds a moment of poignant vulnerability to the album otherwise polished with glossy production and beats.
‘What Do I Know?’ is social commentary piece with a catchy beat. The song’s central theme which is expressed by the line “Love can change the world in a moment” is an admirably noble (albeit unrealistic) theme that recalls to mind similar themes echoed in John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. But it does add a cheeky undertone to the song by following up that aforementioned line immediately with “but what do I know?”
But to be honest, overall I actually thought his + and x albums were better. Because comparing track for track, ‘Eraser’ is obviously weaker against ‘You need me, I don’t need you’, and the above ballads I mentioned, they’re good but still weaker than his songwriting peak form in ‘The A Team’ (on +) and ‘One’ (on x). Similarities between his songs and others’ have already come up: ‘Shape of you’ against Sia’s ‘Cheap Thrills’ but at least the songs weren’t really as similar as the case was for ‘Photograph’ and ‘Thinking Out Loud’ respectively.
tanboonwah 