<\/p>\n
Ed Sheeran\u2019s latest album has been described as an \u201cbuoyant\u201d record that reinforces his reputation as a crowd-pleasing but often \u201ccheesy\u201d performer with a \u201ctendency towards triteness\u201d.<\/p>\n
Play, his eighth album, was released on Friday, with four singles already familiar to fans: Azizam, Old Phone, Sapphire and A Little More.<\/p>\n
His latest offering features Asian and Middle Eastern influences, with album credits to players of the sitar, the tabla, the Kashmiri santoor and the South Indian kanjira.<\/p>\n
Awarding it three out of five stars, Maya Georgi of Rolling Stone magazine, said: \u201cWhen it comes to globetrotting musical fusions Sheeran isn\u2019t exactly George Harrison or Paul Simon.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, despite some of its nods to a more global sound, Play is a lot more of the same radio-tailored singer-songwriter music that has become Sheeran\u2019s signature in his 15-year career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Petridis of The Guardian also gave it three stars.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe tracks recorded in India feel less striking than two songs made closer to home.<\/p>\n
\u201cA collaboration with Fred Again, Don\u2019t Look Down, fruitfully places Sheeran\u2019s vocal amid luminous rave synths and, eventually, a pounding house beat.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd highlight Symmetry opens with looped Indian percussion and vocals but quickly floats off in a different direction, involving spectral voices and heaving sub-bass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Petridis added that \u201ca curiously dark emotional undercurrent keeps bubbling up throughout Play\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are allusions to Sheeran\u2019s circle of friends contracting, to \u2018leeches\u2019 and his heart being broken by \u2018loved ones\u2019.<\/p>\n
Neil McCormick of The Telegraph said of Sheeran: \u201cThere is something cheesy at his core, a tendency towards triteness, easy rhymes, obvious chord progressions and cliched sentimentality.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of his most popular songs combine saccharine sweetness with soft focus messaging, positioning Sheeran as the hallmark bard of modern pop, with a reassuring ditty for every occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of Play, McCormick wrote: \u201cSheeran loses the grit and grain that gives texture to his most interesting work and disappears entirely into mushy fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan Bassett of NME, also awarding three stars, said: \u201cThere are an awful lot of those sickly ballads, some of which are better than others.<\/p>\n
He added that it was \u201cdispiriting\u201d that the album\u2019s opening track \u2013 \u201centitled, ingeniously, Opening \u2013 starts off as yet another introspective, finger-picked ballad\u201d.<\/p>\n
Thomas Smith of Billboard was more positive, describing Play as a \u201cbuoyant record that traverses moods and continents\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Ed back at his vibrant best, and the start of a bright, brilliant new era,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Sheeran fans took to social media to praise the new release.<\/p>\n
On X, @sujoah wrote: \u201cEd Sheeran absolutely popped off with Play \u2013 it\u2019s brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n
@kylieswift31 wrote: \u201cIn other words\u2019 is hands down my favourite song on Ed Sheeran\u2019s new play album.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait to play this on repeat. The album as a whole also feels like the embodiment of cinematic nostalgia. Incredible!\u201d<\/p>\n
@humanheart___ said it was a \u201cvery hopeful and positive album that the world desperately needs right now. a few misses here and there but overall it\u2019s still a solid album. a lot of indian influences throughout which was surprising. overall not his best but definitely not his worst!!\u201d<\/p>\n
Play is the first of Sheeran\u2019s five planned symbol records, with Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind and Stop set to follow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ed Sheeran\u2019s latest album has been described as an \u201cbuoyant\u201d record that reinforces his reputation as a crowd-pleasing but often \u201ccheesy\u201d performer with a \u201ctendency towards triteness\u201d. Play, his eighth album, was released on Friday, with four singles already familiar to fans: Azizam, Old Phone, Sapphire and A Little More. His latest offering features Asian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2016645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[38262,369942,352331,369943],"class_list":["post-2016644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-ed-sheeran","tag-eighth-album","tag-latest-album","tag-play-album"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ed-Sheerans-new-album-Play-receives-mixed-reviews.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2016644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2016645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2016644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2016644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2016644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}