It sounds like publicity spin but the world really is falling in love with Ed Sheeran, and after a listen to his debut album + you will be as well. It only take one listen to this album for you to realise that this British singer/songwriter is one of the most talented musos to surface in a long time.
+ eases in smoothly with ‘The A Team’, a beautiful indie track that Sheeran wrote after visiting a crisis centre. By the time you get to ‘Drunk’ you really do feel like an alcoholic because this album is so damn addictive that you just want more and more.
‘U.N.I.’ shows Sheeran’s expertise as a songwriter while ‘Grade 8’ is one catchy radio track that I really don’t mind listening to over and over. ‘Wake Me Up’ may sound like a track that James Blunt would love to get his hands on but Sheeran’s unique British humor raises it’s head and really makes it something special.
By far the most beautiful track on + is ‘Small Bump’. This is one of the best tracks ever written about fatherhood and really does show why Sheeran deserves to be rated as one of the best songwriters around at the moment. He follows that up with ‘This’ an absolutely gorgeous love song that is going to have hearts breaking.
‘The City’ is a pop track with a rock edge that makes it something special while ‘Lego House’ is yet another love song that will be finding itself onto many romantic’s mix tapes I’m guessing. The faster pace of ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ shows a different side to Sheeran and the use of terms like ‘crack pipe’ shows you just how cutting edge he really is.
Sheeran does sweet and seductive to a T with ‘Kiss Me’ while the brilliant sound of ‘Give Me Love’ makes you rue the fact that it is the last track on the album.
+ shows that Sheeran has the potential to become one of the most popular musos of our time, now after a brilliant debut comes the hard part… sitting down to write the follow up.
Rating: 