In late February, 21-year-old Ed Sheeran was named best male breakthrough artiste for his debut album + at the Brit Awards (Adele swept the female category). And what a fine debut it is — achieving that rare combination of popularising a genre (in this case, a mix of grime, hip hop, folk and acoustic music) while establishing the artiste’s definitive sound. Norah Jones managed to do that with Come Away With Me. Ed’s managed to do that with +. But the word “debut” in this case is almost a misnomer, for Ed’s no stranger to the music scene. Beginning in 2005, he’s released several singles and EPs over the years (+, his first full-length album includes tracks he’s released before as singles), and has performed at several sold-out concerts and managed to garner a fan following that includes the likes of Jamie Foxx, Elton John and footballer Rio Ferdinand.
With 16 tracks that cumulate into a running time of just over an hour, + lives up to its name — it’s a big album to handle. It also offers bonus material: A cover of Wayfaring Stranger, and a video featuring an acoustic version of Grade 8. But at no point of time does the sheer amount of music begin to pall. The tracks (written by Ed), have a trippy, whimsical feel to them; like their creator, they refuse to be categorised into any genre, and cover a gamut of themes, among them love, heartbreak, pain, urban life etc. Just when you begin to think of them as ballads with an acoustic heart, and Ed as a John Mayer-esque figure, he changes the tempo, infuses elements of beat box, hip hop and launches into the album’s standout track: You Need Me, I Don’t Need You.
That’s certainly not the attitude Ed takes towards his fans — he’s spent years cultivating them, playing gigs for an audience of just five people to over 1,000, religiously releasing his music over iTunes in the days before he was signed on by a record label. Questions about what sets him apart are met with a diffident, “The blend of acoustic music, folk with hip hop beats? I don’t know…” followed by a laughing, “Maybe it’s my ginger hair!”
But the answer probably has more to do with the fact that Ed’s willing to take chances for his music, he’s deeply confident of his sound, and is willing to go the extra mile to convince people of it. When he read somewhere that James Morrison had played 200 gigs in one year, Ed promptly beat that number by performing 312 gigs in 2009. When he ran out of money and could no longer afford to pay rent, he “sofa surfed” through London, later taking off for the US with no contacts except a brief acquaintance with some people he met at a poetry reading event. In the States too, Ed continued performing at bars, until Jamie Foxx noticed him at one and offered him the use of his home in Hollywood for the remainder of his stay and record some music for his album in.
Music has been a part of Ed’s life since the time he was little: First as part of a church choir (influences of which can be seen in the vocal harmonies on tracks like Give Me Love and Wayfaring Stranger) and then when he began teaching himself to play the guitar. His voice and the slow way he plucks the guitar create much of the wonderful melancholy on this album, much of the fun as well. The rest comes from the great production and lyrics that seem deceptively superficial until you get to their core. “I’m going to pick up the pieces and build a Lego house, if things go wrong, you can knock it down,” he croons in Lego House (the video of which features Harry Potter star Rupert Grint — another famous ginger haired Brit!).
What you’re guaranteed at the end of an hour is the discovery of an artiste who’s going to make his way into your heart, who’s going to create music that you can play on loop in your quietest, achiest moments and who, with his unique gift, will make you feel a little less jaded, and a whole lot happier.