Ed Sheeran, the review of Autumn Variations: the intimate journey into autumn

What a treat, this new album by Ed Sheeran. Just four months after the previous one, the English star packs Autumn Variationsdesigned precisely to be listened to in this period, calmly.

There is no shortage of emotions. Autumn Variationsreleased on the Gingerbread Man Records label and produced by Aaron Dessner of the rock band The Nationalis a journey in fourteen stages into the pure yet tormented soul of ginger Ed, who first in music and then also in the docuseries released on Disney+ was not afraid to reveal his dark side: the difficult childhood, the bullying he suffered, the fear of not making it and the consequent stuttering, the sentimental torments before getting married Cherry Seaborn (the couple has two children), up to more recent dramas such as depression, Cherry’s tumor during her second pregnancy, the sudden death of her friend Jamal Edwards, the first music producer to have believed in him. In short, we thought we knew more or less everything about Ed Sheeran and instead this album, which mixes melancholy songs with livelier tracks (one of the “variations” is titled Springspring!) is a real surprise.

Let’s be clear: it is a 100 percent Ed Sheeran album, with that gright mix between pop and intimate songwritingalways super catchy. But it’s varied. There hits which in our opinion will be more popular on the radio (we consulted, during the preview listening, with some of his most avid Italian fans, invited for the occasion) is American Towna joyous track that Sheeran himself said he was dedicated to Courtney Coxthe legendary Monica Galler of Friends. Courtney and Ed have been friends for a long time and the song retraces glimpses of this deep bond made of jokes and dinners based on Chinese taken from the take-away. «We live the same life we ​​saw in Friends», goes a line, and how can you not hum it right away? Then, there is Magical, which opens the album, and which seems to come out of a fairy tale: it is an inno to the magic of love. And then again Midnighttender and reassuring (“even the worst days end at midnight in your arms”).

This is an autumn made of tenderness, and not just melancholy, even if Ed Sheeran continues to sing about the “demons” (of his and his generation). Here we hear, however, different variations because this latest work by him is a «choral album”: the artist himself revealed that the idea was born just a year ago, when he discovered that his friends, as was happening to him, were going through a period of change. “Everything has come to a head,” Sheeran said. Everything, that is, the hardships, the dramas, the fears but also the new loves, the possible comebacks.

Of this autumn in which you shed your skinin which we leave the excesses of summer and prepare for something else, the artist wanted to tell every nuance: «My father and my brother told me about a composer called Elgar who composed Enigma Variation, in which each of the 14 compositions was about a different one of his friends. That’s what inspired me to make this album. I feel like he captured the feeling of autumn so beautifully in his sounds and I hope everyone loves it as much as I do», declared Ed Sheeran, now a permanent presence on the international music scene (he won only in Italy a Diamond disc For Shape of you, 77 platinums16 golds and holds the record for appearances in the top 10).

An album for his many fansbuilt on the emotional rollercoaster that he and his friends are experiencing or have experienced, a way of telling us that there are moments Blue (like the title of a song) and others Amazing, sad days like birthdays spent alone and others in which, in front of the southern English coast overlooking the English Channel, an unexpected serenity is felt. To make the atmosphere even more intimate, Sheeran also had an idea (but if you are his avid fan, you already know this): he recorded as many “living room” versions in the homes of 14 lucky fans, one for each track of the album which will thus also have its own version live. A surprise within a surprise, thanks Ed.