More than four years after the release of his blockbuster album “-,” Ed Sheeran has announced that his long-awaited fourth full-length album, called “=,” naturally enough, will be out on October 29.
“‘=’ (Equals) is a really personal record and one that means a lot to me,” he said in the announcement. “My life changed greatly over the past few years – I got married, became a father, experienced loss, and I reflect on these topics over the course of the album. I see it as my coming-of-age record, and I can’t wait to share this next chapter with you.”
Sheeran revealed the album’s tracklist (below) and unveiled a new song from it, “Visiting Hours,” alongside a performance video. Sheeran released the first single from the album, “Bad Habits,” in June.
The fourth instalment in Sheeran’s “symbol album” series, according to the announcement, “=” is “a body of songs that were made over a four-year period following his seminal ‘÷’ (Divide) album era. Thematically, ‘=’ finds Ed taking stock of his life and the people in it, as he explores the varying degrees of love (‘The Joker And The Queen’, ‘First Times’, ‘2step’), loss (‘Visiting Hours’), resilience (‘Can’t Stop The Rain’) and fatherhood (‘Sandman’, ‘Leave Your Life’), while also processing his reality and career (‘Tides’).”
Ed Sheeran ‘Equals’ Courtesy Elektra
The announcement comes at the end of a long quiet period for Sheeran in the years since he finished his tour behind 2017’s “Divide.” In that time he released a mixtape-type “No. 6 Collaborations Project” in 2019 and became father to a daughter who is nearly a year old.
Sheeran’s manager, Stuart Camp, spoke with Variety about the album late last month — and said there’s likely to be another album sooner than later, if Sheeran can tour for as long as he’s hoping.“We’ll be touring – if we’re allowed to – for two to three years, and there may be more records in that period,” Camp said. “If we tour for that long, I’d imagine there will be two albums within that cycle. Because this record’s taken so long to make, we genuinely have a lot of songs, so it could happen relatively quickly. If he wanted to, he could literally release an album of acoustic ballads tomorrow!”
The new song, “Visiting Hours,” finds Sheeran coming to terms with the loss of his mentor and friend, Australian music impresario Michael Gudinski, and was written shortly after his passing: “I wish that heaven had visiting hours / So I can just swing by and ask your advice.” He debuted the song at a memorial for Gudinski back in March.
Written and recorded across England, Sweden and Los Angeles, the album’s executive production comes from Ed Sheeran, Fred (“No.6 Collaborations Project”) and Johnny McDaid (“Divide”), with additional writing and/or production provided by Steve Mac, Joe Rubel, Amy Wadge, Foy Vance, Elvira Anderfjard, David Hodges, Andrew Watt, Lou Bell, Natalie Hemby and Ben Kweller. Sheeran’s brother, Matthew, a composer, also contributes string arrangements on “First Times” and “The Joker and the Queen.”
‘=’ Official Tracklist:
- Tides
- Shivers
- First Times
- Bad Habits
- Overpass Graffiti
- The Joker And The Queen
- Leave Your Life
- Collide
- 2step
- Stop The Rain
- Love In Slow Motion
- Visiting Hours
- Sandman
- Be Right Now
Read More About:
Ed Sheeran has teased his next “curveball” project, confirming that it’s coming very soon.
Speaking to The Project NZ about his upcoming Australia and New Zealand stadium tour, the singer-songwriter explained the reasoning behind naming his albums after mathematical symbols.
“I was like, ‘I don’t really want to be a poster boy’,” Sheeran said. “So I had sort of figured out a way [to do] it with colours and symbols. I was like, ‘I’d love to get to a point that there’s a billboard of just red with an equals sign […] and people go, Oh, Ed’s got a new album coming out’.”
The star was then asked whether he’s going to switch up the longrunning theme for his next record, or if ‘–’ (Minus) would be the title of his ‘=’ follow-up.
“That’s not gonna be the next record I put out,” Sheeran replied “I’ve got something else that’s a bit more of a curveball. We’ve got the first thing of it dropping in 10 days. I don’t think it’s gonna be a massive hit in New Zealand though, I’ve got to be honest.
“It’s gonna be a big hit, somewhere else. When you hear it, you’ll understand.” You can watch the full interview in the tweet below.
Get ready Aotearoa, because one of the biggest pop stars around is heading to our shores.
And he's here to tell us all about it – It's @edsheeran pic.twitter.com/drQeHpA2bn
— The Project NZ (@TheProject_NZ) March 16, 2022
In February, Sheeran revealed that he was “going to write a song” with Bring Me The Horizon after the two acts joined forces for a special performance at the BRIT Awards 2022.
Cradle Of Filth, meanwhile, said they were “looking at some options” regarding a potential Ed Sheeran collaboration.
Back in November 2021, Sheeran said that he was planning to make “10 symbol records” in total, including the previously released studio efforts ‘+’ (2011), ‘x’ (2014), ‘÷’ (2017) and ‘=’ (2021).
Sheeran explained at the time that he would also drop a follow-up to 2019’s ‘No. 6 Collaborations Project’, which featured duets with the likes of Eminem, Cardi B, Justin Bieber and Stormzy.
“Between the next [album] I’ll do ‘No. 7’,” he said.
Earlier this month, Ed Sheeran revealed during his ‘Shape Of You’ copyright court case that he had written 25 songs with The National‘s Aaron Dessner.
Sheeran is set to embark on a string of small warm-up shows next week ahead of his 2022 UK and Ireland stadium tour.