Ed Sheeran: = (indie exclusive, white vinyl) [ATLANTIC]

Why you'll love it

This indie exclusive pressing comes on limited edition white vinyl. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK and on the Billboard 200, his fourth US chart-topper, with "Bad Habits" and "Shivers" as its big singles.

This edition

• White vinyl
• Indie exclusive
• Limited edition
• Pressed in the USA

About the album

Ed Sheeran likes a maths symbol, and = is where the sums started adding up differently. Written as he became a father and settled into his thirties, it's the sound of a pop star taking stock: about family, friends, love and time, set to some of the brightest, most danceable music he'd made.

"Bad Habits" goes full synth-pop in the small hours, "Shivers" is a giddy, hand-clapping singalong, and "Overpass Graffiti" chases a big 80s pulse. Then he slows it right down: "The Joker And The Queen" is a gentle piano ballad, "Visiting Hours" is a moving tribute to the late Michael Gudinski, and "Sandman" is a lullaby written for his daughter. Fred Again and Johnny McDaid helped shape the sound, which swings between widescreen pop production and the intimate, close-miked songwriting that made him famous in the first place, busking guitar and all.

Fourteen songs, every one of them built to be sung back at him in stadiums, which is exactly what happened on the tour that followed. We'd recommend practising the falsetto in "Shivers" at home first, for the neighbours' sake.

Also at Kops: more Ed Sheeran on vinyl · browse Pop

Tracklist

Listen

On Asylum / Atlantic, the 2021 album.