2016 was Ed Sheeran-less and an Ed-less year is never a good one in my books. In December 2015 when he announced he was taking a break I was gutted but fair play to him, he had been touring pretty much non-stop since August 2014.
I was lucky enough to see him in concert in October 2014 at the Gentin Arena Birmingham and it was one of the best concerts I’ve been to. If someone can stand on stage for almost 2 hours with just a guitar, no gimmicks, no backing dancers and have the audience on their feet dancing and loving life then they are fucking awesome in my opinion.
On January 1st when I saw his tweet I was SO excited to see that he would be releasing new music. Then it happened. Not one but two brand new singles! Well, it has been a whole year since we’ve heard his amazing vocals, so it’s only fair, right?
‘Shape Of You’
I heard this first on Snapchat. When I started messing around with the filter and heard the voice I was like HOLY SHIT IT’S ED SHEERAN. You can recognise his voice straight away. This is such a great track. One of those ones that you dance like crazy in your car to and really don’t care who sees you. If you’ve never done this, you’re lying
‘Castle On The Hill’
“…made friends and lost them through the years, and I’ve not seen the roaring fields in so long, I know I’ve grown”. I hear you Ed. He knows how to write great lyrics doesn’t he? Out of the 2 songs, I relate to this more. It just seems so nostalgic and personal, I can actually visualise what he’s singing. Even Niall tweeted to mention how the track reminds him of home. I can’t help but draw similarities between this track and Niall’s ‘This Town‘. The same sort of idea don’t you think? Both are amazing obvs.
It’s safe to say 2017 is going to be an amazing year for music. With Ed Sheeran back in the picture it’s a dead cert! Here’s my 5 reasons why I’m excited about his comeback.
1. New music videos
The lyric videos for the singles are pretty awesome. For me they’re always beneficial to try and learn the fast bits he sings (although I can never master them as well as Ed). Can you teach me please? Anyway, moving on – the lyric videos are fab for now but we need some new music videos! I’m predicting a black and white video for ‘Castle On The Hill’. Yes please!
2. TV appearances
It’s been far too long since we’ve seen his beautiful face. Now he’s released these two singles he’s going to be busy promoting them. Promo = TV appearances so plenty of amazing live performances for me to swoon over him. Not only that but he’s also recently mentioned in an interview that we’ll expect to see him doing a Carpool Karaoke with James Corden. It’s going to be the best carpool karaoke yet, I can already tell.
3. History in the making
After just 24 hours of the singles being released, they had been streamed over 30 million times, knocking One Direction‘s ‘Drag Me Down’ off the top spot. In fairness, the boys have held onto that record since August 2015 – respect! Not only that, but according to reports – he’s about to make history by being the first artist to release two singles at the same time with one taking the #1 chart position and the other taking #2. It’ll be interesting to see which gets to Number 1.
4. New album
÷
— Ed Sheeran (@edsheeran) January 5, 2017
Twitter went crazy after Ed merely posted a “÷” sign. Keeping in theme with his previous album titles ‘+’ and ‘×’, I’m sure his new divide album is going to be yet another chart topper. Despite the title, I don’t think he’s going to be dividing any opinions because everyone is going to love it (*those who won’t then we need to have a serious talk to reevaluate).
5. New tour
Forward planning I know as he hasn’t even released the album yet but you can’t blame me for being excited? New album = new tour we all know that.
P.S – Thank you, Ed for coming back!
