Ed Sheeran's Divide - A Review

After a 3 year hiatus, Ed Sheeran is back and at it with fresh new music. He is currently touring his new album ÷

Dive, Eraser and New Man are my favourites off the album. However, I would have preferred it if Ed had placed tracks like Eraser and Dive towards the end of the CD rather than the beginning as these are the few tracks which constitute the essence of the album and the build-up would have helped. Whereas, now the rest of the record seems pale in comparison when you get past the first few songs.

Eraser is exceptionally impressive and the lyrics are as real as it gets. New Man is a song you will surely find yourself resonating with if you’ve ever looked at your ex’s new relationship and wondered what the hell they’re doing. It is “A witty takedown of every tattooed bro with a Ministry of Sound compilation” as put by The Guardian.

Shape of You appeals to a much larger audience compared to Ed’s previous music. I found everyone, from my neighbours to my brother, who prefers Eminem over Ed Sheeran, jamming to it.

Galway Girl and Nancy Mulligan with their Irish fiddles make the album more interesting and keep you coming back for more.

Castle on the Hill is a beautifully specific, nostalgic one which I think was the perfect choice for a single because it instantly highlights how this album is a step away from his previous work. Tracks like Barcelona and Bibia Be Ye Ye make the album distinct with their new, upbeat and different sounds. He has experimented with a lot of different music styles.

Hearts Don’t Break around Here reflects yet again the innocent perception Ed has of love, which some may think of as unrealistic. But it is a beautifully pure love song in a typically Sheeran way where you can’t help but look at love the same angelic way.

Perfect is pretty much Ed Sheeran in a nutshell. There is a reason he is popular in the wedding scene. And this song reinforces the sentiments which were similarly brought forth by tracks like Thinking Out Loud previously. It is in fact, the ’Perfect’ song for a first dance at a wedding, bordering cliché, I actually call it The Wedding Song.

What Do I Know and Save Myself offer a positive and motivational undertone and contribute more to the personal aspect of the album than the commercial.

When ÷ first came out, a lot of people instantaneously found their favourite in Supermarket Flowers. I, on the other hand, have only begun to really love it towards the very end, after I had explored all the aspects of the rest of the songs on the album. Despite the theme of losing a loved one, for me it also evokes love and warmth.

Happier was a song which I often found stuck in my head but I would not consider it one of my favourites.

I am a firm believer of giving equal time and recognition to all the tracks on a new record. But I admit, I did find myself skipping How Would You Feel (Paean) almost every time it came on. I wouldn’t say that it’s a bad track, but it is exceedingly underwhelming, especially in comparison to the rest of the album. It is one of those tracks where it doesn’t contribute a lot to the album as a whole and so, its absence would have gone unnoticed. The lyrics too are substandard.

Although I do agree that ÷ is a much more calculative album from a marketing standpoint, and much less raw relative to Sheeran’s previous work, like +, it did not disappoint; with some musically brilliant numbers like Dive and Eraser. That said, there were also some aspects which seemed rather under calculated or not well thought out such as the order of the tracks.