Entertainment
How do you pronounce Ed Sheeran’s new album?
Ed is continuing the theme with his new album title
(Picture: Kommersant Photo Agency/Rex/Shutterstock)
After months of teasing, we finally have the details on global superstar singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran’s next album release.
Ed is currently riding high in the charts on a (so-far) eight-week reign at number one with Bad Habits, the first single from his new album.
On Thursday the 30-year-old finally confirmed that his new album = will be released in October, over four years after he started recording it.
How do you pronounce Ed Sheeran’s album title?
Ed’s new album = is pronounced Equals, like the mathematics symbol, and will release on October 29.
The star wrote on Instagram as he shared confirmed details of his latest album: ‘I started writing and recording this album June 2017. It’s been a long, long process. I’ve been through love, loss, new life, grief and everything in between during the whole period of writing it, and I feel like it’s really a coming of age record.
‘I’ve never been more proud of a body of work, or more excited/nervous for you all to hear it.’
How to pronounce Ed Sheeran’s earlier albums
The singer from Suffolk is neatly continuing the established pattern of names for (almost all of) his previous records, which also share names with simple mathematics terms.
He burst onto the scene with +, pronounced Plus, his first studio album, in 2011, which spawned hits The A Team and Lego House, and which he’ll be celebrating the 10-year anniversary of with an intimate London gig for just 2,000 fans in September.
He followed that up with x, pronounced Multiply, in 2014, which included Thinking Out Loud and Sing.
Ed at Glastonbury in 2017 (Picture: Corbis via Getty Images)
÷, pronounced Divide, arrived in 2017, along with chart-topping singles Castle on the Hill and Shape of You.
No.6 Collaborations Project in 2019 broke the pattern, and saw Ed team up with musicians including Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper, Khalid, Cardi B and 50 Cent.
In an interview with VIBE on the significance of his album titles back in 2014, Ed said that you ‘have to have the concept in your head’ and explained + came from him adding new records to songs in his back catalogue, x was because he sought to ‘exponentially build’ on its predecessor and that – would be ‘the acoustic vibe’ and ÷ ‘between me and one other person’.
Many fans were expecting this latest album to be – but Ed has obviously diverged from his set path here as he explores sounds far from acoustic, labelling it ‘an amalgamation of all the records I’ve done’.
Ed is back to dominate the charts once more (Picture: Danny Reynolds)
What is Ed Sheeran’s new song Visiting Hours about?
As he formally announced =, Ed also shared that the second song to be released from the album was Visiting Hours, revealing that he finished it ‘for my friend Michael, who sadly passed away this year’.
The singer performed the song live at the memorial for Australian music executive and Mushroom Group founder Michael Gudinski, his closer friend and mentor, in March.
Since then, the musician has revealed he recruited both Aussie icon Kylie Minogue, with whom he duetted at Michael’s memorial, and singer-songwriter and former Cold Chisel lead vocalist Jimmy Barnes for the recording of the track.
Visiting Hours is the next single from Ed’s new album = (Picture: Dan Martensen)
Confirming the team-up had happened, ahead of his new album release, Ed explained while speaking on the Ash London LIVE! podcast: ‘From knowing Michael, they are the most important people in Michael’s life musically. He was always saying, “Kylie” or “Jimmy Barnes”.
More: Ed Sheeran
‘When I was there, I sang with Kylie and then I hung with Jimmy Barnes afterwards and I was like, “You guys have to be on the song.”’
On the album’s official announcement post, Ed also confirmed that anyone pre-ordering = would also receive Visiting Hours, as well as it being available for purchase separately on all music platforms.
= is out on October 29.
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