Critics have praised Ed Sheeran’s new album, (Subtract), in which he reflects on a difficult year.
The album was published on Friday, hours after Sheeran won a court case in the United States for plagiarism.
Last year, Sheeran’s companion Jamal Edwards passed away, and his pregnant wife is diagnosed with cancer.
Following + (Plus), x (Multiply), (Divide), and = (Equals), the release of – (Subtract) concludes Sheeran’s sequence of albums titled after mathematical symbols.
To reflect the album’s title, the singer intended for Subtract to be more acoustic and stripped-down than his customary musical style.
During the songwriting process, however, Sheeran abandoned many of the songs he had crafted for the album over many years in preference of new songs that directly referenced the personal difficulties he faced in 2022.
In a four-star review of the album, Will Hodgkinson of the Times stated, “It’s clear that he’s been going through a particularly rough patch.”
Sheeran appears to be processing his emotions through music, sticking to the acoustic folk-pop that made him famous.
He added, “There is another quality that shines through here that makes even Sheeran’s least poetic moments work: unpretentiousness.” You never doubt that he truly believes what he sings.”
Aaron Dessner of The National, who produced Taylor Swift’s recent albums Folklore and Evermore, works with Sheeran on Subtract.
On Subtract, Sheeran replaces radio successes with a more downtempo sound, like Swift did on those albums.
Neil McCormick of the Telegraph gave the album five stars, writing, “Under the subtle guidance of Dessner, Sheeran largely restrains his populist instincts and allows songs to develop at a measured pace.”
“The result is a fluid, emotional, anxious, and atmospheric album of therapeutic self-healing, in which the raw immediacy of Sheeran’s emotions takes precedence, shaking and warping material in subtle, twisting, and profoundly personal directions. In the process, Subtract has evolved into something less strategic than was originally intended, but more intriguing.”
He added, “Even at his most pessimistic, Sheeran finds music to be a balm for suffering souls, resulting in an album born of grief and depression that is in no way difficult to listen to.”
The release of the album follows the debut of the Disney+ docuseries The Sum of it All, which followed Sheeran as he recorded the album while navigating personal challenges.
In Subtract, Sheeran makes direct references to the early 2022 deaths of music entrepreneur Edwards, who helped begin his career, and his wife Cherry Seaborn, who was diagnosed with cancer.
Sheeran faced and won a court lawsuit weeks after being accused of copying Shape of You.
His 2014 song Thinking Out Loud was accused of plagiarising Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On in January.
A US court declared on Thursday that Sheeran had not copied Gaye’s song. Speaking outside of court, the singer stated, “We might as well say goodbye to the creative freedom of songwriters if the jury had decided this case differently.”
Subtract was supposed to be released on Friday, but the court case delayed it until hours after the verdict.
The album has fewer potential chart successes than Sheeran’s previous albums due to its downbeat nature. But it does contain his April number-one single Eyes Closed.
In his four-star review of Subtract, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian mentioned Dessner’s clear influence.
“Dessner dresses the songs in tastefully subdued tones, a sound familiar from Folklore’s softer moments: subdued string arrangements; twinkling, spectral synthesizers; gentle breezes of feedback and reverb-drenched electric guitars, the sound of fingers scraping along the strings as loud as the notes,” he said.
It’s atmospheric and well-executed, but it can become monotonous: the full drum ensemble and distorted guitar that begin Curtains are oddly jarring.
“Subtract is easily his best album,” he concluded. However, it is also the first album by Ed Sheeran since his début for which you cannot confidently predict commercial success.”
Nick Levine of NME was somewhat less effusive about the album, awarding it three stars.
“The majority of Subtract is ploddingly monotonous, a frequent drawback of Dessner’s laid-back production techniques,” he wrote.
The album’s repetitiveness may reflect Sheeran’s mental health difficulties.
“For the most part, Subtract feels like a warm but cautious hug from a sensitive friend – Dessner gives Sheeran space to say what’s on his mind without trying to crowd him.”
The Independent’s Roisin O’Connor also awarded the film three stars, saying, “It’s a departure for the better.”
Lyrically, the album falls short, but Sheeran has spent over a decade dealing with nebulous yet ubiquitous concerns. Heartbroken? Have a crush on someone? Having a drink with pals? He has your back. Now he is attempting to open up.”
The majority of Subtract is a testament to the adage that less is frequently much more.
“A sense of coherence that was absent in 2021’s Equals,” Financial Times critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney gave Subtract three stars.
“His voice is particularly prominent, with singing filling almost all of the acoustic space,” he wrote. “The effect is congruent with the disappearance of instrumental intros in the era of grabby streaming. But it’s also that of a person wanting to get something off their chest.”
