After two years, U.K. musician and international superstar Ed Sheeran has returned with a whole new album of catchy songs — this time, with a global twist.
While Sheeran has come to be known in the industry as something of a musical omnivore, this album marks his first forays into Indian, Persian and other global music traditions.
Today on Commotion, culture writers Richie Assaly and Leila Latif as well as music journalist Maura Johnston talk about the new album, Play, and how these songs might land with his listeners around the world.
We’ve included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion on the long-awaited Spinal Tap sequel, Justin Bieber’s second surprise album, and Lizzo’s war on the algorithm, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.
WATCH | Today’s episode on YouTube:
Amil: Ed Sheeran’s new album, called Play, is the first of a planned five album series that will be named after the buttons on a media player. I can’t believe I’m saying those words out loud. He’s apparently already got the next installment, Rewind, ready to go. I mean, how many people alive still even know about the buttons on a media player? But we can get into that.
Leila, Ed has dominated the pop charts since his debut in 2011. He’s currently got two tracks on the top 10 list of the most streamed songs of all time. What is the key to someone like that staying so popular for so long?
Leila: Well, I think with Ed Sheeran, what he’s got is obviously an enormous amount of talent, songwriting ability, performance ability, but also particularly in England, he really laid his foundation with being the most charming person on talk shows.… He would be so humble, and so funny and stuff. So there was just, like, a groundswell that came on him; everybody was rooting for this guy.
I guess he’s just proved his mettle. I’ve been listening to the album all day, and I think it was perfectly serviceable. I think maybe the global influences of it all are a little shallow, because everything still feels very distinctly Ed Sheeran, with perhaps a little bit of a beat. But I can’t help but root for the guy. And I speak on behalf of the U.K.
Amil: Well, I thank you for speaking on behalf of the U.K. Richie, we do hear some obviously global sounds in there — Persian influences, Indian influences. What do you make of this more global palette?
Richie: I think Ed Sheeran’s secret power has always been this ability to shapeshift, and adopt — or appropriate, maybe — different sounds. You know, he does Irish traditional music, he does contemporary R&B, but he always kind of maintains this image of this down-to-earth guy … you know, just a bloke with a guitar. And I think with this album, he takes this approach to a whole new level, where he’s very intentionally trying to create these globalized crossover hits that might have an impact beyond just the English-speaking markets. There’s Sapphire, which he collaborates with Arijit Singh, who is a massive star in India. There’s a remix of Azizam with Googoosh, who’s a pop icon in Iran.
If you can indulge me for a second, I see this as part of a trend that I call the “FIFA-fication” of pop music, where an artist reaches such a high level of commercial success that the only way to maintain growth is to create these big multicultural crossover hits that can transcend borders — and that feel like the kind of song you’ll hear during the FIFA World Cup, like during a McDonald’s commercial or a Visa ad that you have to watch a million times. We’ve seen this with Coldplay, who recently did a bizarre song with Afro pop singer Burna Boy and Palestinian singer Elyanna. We saw it with Bruno Mars, with his huge hit that he scored with Rosé from Blackpink.
WATCH | Official music video for Sapphire:
I think sometimes this works. I think Sapphire is not a bad song, but more often than not, I find that these FIFA-fied songs end up sounding very bland or very contrived — like they were sort of dreamed up in a boardroom, right, rather than the result of some genuine artistic curiosity. And I realize that’s a very cynical take, but I think it’s worked very brilliantly for someone like Ed Sheeran, who’s a global superstar. He’s one of the very few artists who is touring in Asia and the Middle East. He played in Mumbai last year…. I think like the World Cup itself, this music can be fun, and it can feel good, but it exists as sort of this fantasy of globalization. And so it doesn’t really do it for me, but that’s kind of how I see it landing.
Amil: No, I mean, it’s a cynical point, but it really sums up a type of song that we do hear at the World Cup. So it’s actually a very good point.
You can listen to the full discussion from today’s show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Panel produced by Stuart Berman.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cbc.ca ’
