The artist announced his new album will be hitting shelves May 5.
Ed Sheeran has new music on the way, and the English singer is revealing how emotional pain in his personal life informed and influenced his new album.
Sheeran dropped a press release on Wednesday, revealing that his long-awaited new album, Subtract, will be hitting shelves May 5, and explained the creative journey that the album took over the past few years.
"I had been working on Subtract for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album, writing and recording hundreds of songs with a clear vision of what I thought it should be," Sheeran shared in his statement. "Then at the start of 2022, a series of events changed my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I viewed music and art."
According to the "Bad Habits" singer, a series of misfortune and tragedy struck -- from his wife, Cherry Seaborn, finding out she had a tumor to the death of a close friend, and the stress of fighting a copyright infringement lawsuit.
"Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumour, with no route to treatment until after the birth. My best friend Jamal, a brother to me, died suddenly and I found myself standing in court defending my integrity and career as a songwriter," Sheeran reflected. "I was spiraling through fear, depression and anxiety."
Sheeran recalled how he "felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air."
However, Sheeran explained that "writing songs is my therapy." So, he decided to work through the rollercoaster of emotional trauma and channel it into something positive.
"[Writing songs] helps me make sense of my feelings," he shared. "I wrote without thought of what the songs would be, I just wrote whatever tumbled out. And in just over a week, I replaced a decade’s worth of work with my deepest darkest thoughts."
"As an artist I didn’t feel like I could credibly put a body of work into the world that didn’t accurately represent where I am and how I need to express myself at this point in my life," Sheeran added. "This album is purely that. It’s opening the trapdoor into my soul. For the first time I’m not trying to craft an album people will like, I’m merely putting something out that’s honest and true to where I am in my adult life."
Sheeran also released the album's tracklist:
"Boat"
"Salt Water"
"Eyes Closed"
"Life Goes On"
"Dusty"
"End Of Youth"
"Colourblind"
"Curtains"
"Borderline"
"Spark"
"Vega"
"Sycamore"
"No Strings"
'The Hills of Aberfeldy"
The new album, Subtract (styled as "-"), from Atlantic Records, comes out May 5.
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