After Ed Sheeran's Math-Symbol Albums Comes 'Five More Records With A Plan'

After Ed Sheeran's Math-Symbol Albums Comes 'Five More Records With A Plan'




A decade ago, Ed Sheeran started a quest. He named his first album + ("Plus") and his 2014 follow-up x ("Multiply") as segment of a master plan. "'Multiply' was called 'Multiply' because it made everything that was on 'Plus' bigger," he told Entertainment Weekly in 2015. "From the venues to the songs to the radio plays to the sales. I don’t know what theme on the second album is nevertheless because I haven't made it."


That ended up being 2017's ÷ ("Divide), which, despite its more reductive title, became his biggest yet: It hit No. 1 In America and all over Europe, yielded chart-topping singles, and led to the highest-grossing tour of all time. It also made Sheeran a household name — so it makes sense that, immediately after a slight diversion in 2019's No.6 Collaborations Project, he's chosen to not call his next album - ("Subtract"). As a substitute, the more harmonious = ("Equals") will drop in October.


However as Sheeran told MTV News ahead of the 2021 VMAs, don't count out "Subtract" just however. "There's one more album right after 'Equals,'" he told correspondent Dometi Pongo on the red carpet, standing with his label signee Maisie Peters. "And and then the mathematics are done."


While he didn't explicitly confirm that the final one in the sequence would, case in point, be called -, the method of elimination would propose it. If that's true, that same EW interview might point toward what we may expect an album called "Subtract" to sound like: "My idea for 'Subtract' was to not have anything on it, just be an acoustic record."


"Equals," meanwhile, is due to be very much not an acoustic record. Though the singer-songwriter touches on early single "Visiting Hours" might propose it, fellow = tracks "Bad Habits" and "Shivers" lean very heavily into dance-pop. Any time he performed "Shivers" at last night's VMAs, he gripped his acoustic guitar as routinely, though he did it while backed up with a full musical group and plenty of pop style.


It seems fair to assume that =, like Sheeran's preceding albums, will be a mixed bag of ballads and more pop-driven bangers. And if his potential future "Subtract" era brings a return to his folky roots, it'll also present some real closure. Once the math symbols are through, Sheeran mentioned to MTV News, "then it's five more records with a plan."


There's something exceptionally satisfying about seeing Sheeran carry out this plan, which could have very conveniently become a mere gimmick in the vein of Sufjan Stevens's 50 states project. He's stuck to his guns through massive life changes — marriage, fatherhood — and it's given him some wonderful perspective.


"For the complete of 'Divide,' I didn't look back. I was just forward, forward, forward," he told MTV News. "And then I got to the end of it, and I was like, I wish I'd stopped for a little and just been like, ah, this went well." Spoken like a true balanced equation.


Check out all of the winner's from the 2021 VMAs right here.









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