Ed Sheeran: + [WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This 180g pressing includes the hidden track "The Parting Glass" at the end of side B. "The A Team" reached No. 3 in the UK and earned Sheeran his first Grammy nomination, for Song of the Year.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Hidden track "The Parting Glass"

About the album

Before the stadiums and the loop pedal world tours, there was a ginger lad from Suffolk with an acoustic guitar and a remarkable work rate. + (say it as plus) was the first of Sheeran's maths-symbol albums, and it arrived with the songs he'd been road-testing in pubs and small clubs for years.

"The A Team" is the quiet, devastating ballad that opened the door, and it's still the song people ask for at the counter. "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" shows off the fast-talking, rap-flavoured side, "Lego House" and "Small Bump" are pure tenderness, and "Give Me Love" builds from a whisper into a full-throated singalong. Jake Gosling, who worked with Sheeran from his earliest recordings, shaped much of the sound, and the album signs off with a traditional Irish farewell tucked in after a stretch of silence.

It made Sheeran a household name in Britain almost overnight and set up everything that followed. He went on to name albums after a minus, a divide sign and an equals sign, so we've given up pretending we'll ever finish the maths.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Asylum / Atlantic, the 2011 album.