Ed Sheeran is able to rewrite the principles, his personal, principally. After a streak of melancholic introspection and quiet reinvention, the worldwide pop icon is able to step out of the grayscale and into technicolor along with his newly introduced eighth studio album Play, out September 12 through Gingerbread Information/Atlantic.
To mark the album reveal, Ed Sheeran dropped “Previous Cellphone,” a hazy, heart-tugging monitor co-produced with Ilya Salmanzadeh and Blake Slatkin. It follows the sooner launch of “Azizam,” a dreamy lead single laced with Persian influences. Conserving the nostalgia alive, he additionally launched @TeddysOldPhone on Instagram—an old-school picture dump straight from his digicam roll.
Whereas Sheeran’s discography usually traces a clear arc of affection, loss, and lyrical vulnerability, Play tosses the rulebook, favoring instinct over introspection and lovely chaos over management. The newest single “Previous Cellphone” captures that tonal pivot so impeccably: it’s uncooked, lo-fi nostalgia coated in a shiny sheen, as if he’s sifting by means of his previous with each surprise and weariness.
However this isn’t simply sonic temper play, it’s a full blown function reversal. The polished pop heavyweight arms the mic to the wide-eyed explorer, channeling the textures of India and Persia, right into a sound that feels borderless and alive. “Azizam” (Persian for “my pricey”), which now has a model that includes Iranian singer Googoosh, and the upcoming album, is stitched along with international fragments: sweaty pub jams, rooftop bus gigs, and impromptu cowboy-hat karaoke periods.
“Play was an album that was made as a direct response to the darkest interval of my life,” Sheeran shares. “[And] popping out of all of that, I simply needed to create pleasure and technicolor, and discover cultures within the nations I used to be touring.” The file, created throughout continents and closed out in Goa, India, pulses with freedom. “It’s an actual rollercoaster of feelings from begin to end. It encapsulates the whole lot that I like about music, and the enjoyable in it, but additionally the place I’m in life as a human, a accomplice, a father,” says Ed.
His new motto? Enjoyable, or overlook it. “Going into this album marketing campaign, I mentioned to myself: “I simply need the whole lot I do to be enjoyable and playful”,” says Ed Sheeran. “That’s why we’re constructing pubs for folks jams, doing gigs on open-top buses, and singing in pink cowboy hats on bars. The older I get, the extra I simply wish to get pleasure from issues, and savor the moments which might be mad and chaotic.”
And Play is precisely that: a vibrant detour from predictability, a file that dances with dysfunction and ditches the blueprint. With music titles like “Symmetry,” “A Little Extra,” and “The Vow,” the album guarantees an eclectic mixture of tender confessions and offbeat musings. It’s nonetheless Ed Sheeran, simply looser, louder, and letting the world take the lead.
Beneath is the complete tracklist for Play:
- “Opening”
- “Sapphire”
- “Azizam”
- “Previous Cellphone”
- “Symmetry”
- “Digital camera”
- “In Different Phrases”
- “A Little Extra”
- “Slowly”
- “Don’t Look Down”
- “The Vow”
- “For All the time”
- “Heaven”
Pre-add/save Play now and stream ‘Previous Cellphone’ on all platforms — don’t miss probably the most playful Sheeran period but!
Interested by what impressed this shift in course? Received ideas in regards to the upcoming EP or ‘Azizam’? We’re listening. Tag us on X @CelebMix and spill your take!
