![]() “Wherever I go I will always find/another stranger to share in the weight of my crimes/And I know you will never find/Another heart that wants you more than mine.” The song’s abrupt ending is effective, that last stanza lingering as listeners contemplate the full weight of “Subtract.Yahoo! just released it’s much anticipated 2.0 update of Yahoo! Messenger into the wild and it can be downloaded now from the App Store. His voice rings clear, with sparse orchestration allowing it to soar, as he reinforces his love with poetic lyrics. Sheeran often pays homage to his European homeland – “Castle on the Hill,” “Galway Girl,” “The City” – and this time, he has crafted a romantic near-hymn about the Scottish town. ![]() Sheeran speak-sings “This week was heavy/I buckled under all the weight.” But, as he directs his thoughts to Seaborn, he reassures “Pain comes at a cost, but we got this.” 'The Hills of Aberfeldy' Named for the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra (which happens to be the name of his 2-year-old daughter), the song shudders with unfussy beauty provided by acoustic guitar, strings, piano and a soaring bridge. “I’ve not been this low, but I’ll be OK,” he decides. “Let me see the sun shine,” he repeats as a propulsive beat and prominent electric guitar lines that nod to The Cure follow his brightening mood. The most upbeat offering on the album finds Sheeran emerging from his emotional cave. “It’s been a long year,” Sheeran notes, after a frank self-assessment that upon Edwards’ death he quit drugs and “tried to fill the void with wine.” He wonders, as he reflected in the docuseries, “is this the ending of our youth when pain starts taking over?” followed by the fear that his pain will never diminish. There is “a constant gray in the clouds,” but “When I hear your name, I think of love.” 'End of Youth' A culmination of the loss of Edwards and the fear of losing his wife, Cherry Seaborn (she shares in the docuseries that she is cancer-free), the song – mostly acoustic guitar with touches of piano and viola – guides Sheeran’s seesawing emotions. 'Life Goes On'īy song’s end, Sheeran’s voice hits with unfettered raggedness, and understandably so. “The truth is now you’re gone … and life just goes on.” It’s one of a couple of up-tempo songs on “Subtract,” but its chugging rhythm is still starker than Sheeran’s usual electronic-synth pop. “Every song reminds me you’re gone,” Sheeran sings as he experiences the harsh realization of loss. The combination of an insistently picked guitar and Sheeran’s syncopated wordplay frame this most blatant ode to Edwards. ![]() ![]() Sheeran’s voice aches with sadness as he sings over a simple acoustic guitar, but as he unspools the lyrics, he realizes that while the hurt may linger, there is still a path forward (“The waves won’t break my boat”). The opening track of the album is steeped in melancholy. The album, out Friday, is also the musical portrait of a man allowing himself to grieve to the point of drowning but at the last moment shooting up for a gasp of air. While a chunk of his success is attributed to swoony valentines such as “Shape of You,” “Perfect” and “Thinking Out Loud” (which was the subject of a copyright infringement case in which Sheeran was found not guilty of plagiarizing Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get it On”), “Subtract” is dedicated to the love of a friend and the sensitivity toward his marriage. They stem from a brutal February 2022 when his best friend, Jamal Edwards, died and Sheeran’s wife was diagnosed with a tumor while pregnant with their second daughter. Sheeran’s feelings of sorrow and confusion are profound on the album. That sentiment, shared in Disney+’s “Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All,” carries into “Subtract,” the sixth studio album of his career and last in his decade of mathematically titled releases. In his new docuseries, Ed Sheeran says “grief instantly ends your youth.” Watch Video: Ed Sheeran's week included a premiere, a court case and 'Subtract'
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