Ed Sheeran has turned into a pop culture icon, but what
continues to draw me to him is largely his work that does not get popular or
put onto the radio. Sure he writes a ton of sappy love songs, but some of his
other work is very genre-mashing with incredibly well-written lyrics.
Take the opening song, for example. “Eraser” has a feel that
draws influences from hip-hop, but the lyrics call out celebrity culture on all
of the nonsense that they promote. He says that “I chased the picture perfect
life, I think they painted it wrong.” He also flat out says that his fans would
not like the person that he has become as in “If I told my fans the things I
did they’d say ‘Fuck you’” and would reject him as an ordinary person. This is
like an angry call out post on himself as he talks about the drugs he has done
and his life as a famous person. But a thread that connects nearly all of the
songs on this album is love’s potential as a redeeming power in the world. He
says that “I wish love was a currency and the whole world was wealthy” which is
different than the love he always discusses in the songs that he’s known for.
This isn’t romantic love or sexual attraction, it’s a universal, unconditional
kind of love. Which is a change from the past.
Carrying on through the album, let’s jump ahead to “What Do
I Know?” Ok so it might just be me, but the “love and understanding,
positivity” part of the verse in this song seems weirdly reminiscent of “Steven
Universe”? Might just be me… Anyways this is another song that builds on this
idea of music and love as a saving influence. The lyrics here are rather
simplistic, it talks about how he’s just a singer who has never been to uni and
thinks that through music and love we can change the world. But what’s he know,
he’s just a celebrity. He alludes to some protests and almost takes this song
in a political direction, but he avoids that altogether. I wonder why, he
references specific people in his more hip-hop songs all the time. Regardless,
this is a song that reminds me a lot of songs from the 60s about love and peace
for all. Honestly, I think we could use a little more youthful energy like that
about now, everyone seems so resigned to the awfulness of the world we live in.
Finally the extended version of the album ends with “Save
Myself.” (If you don’t have the extended version, it’s “Supermarket Flowers”
which is also a really sad song, but a little more uplifting than this.) The
first and last songs of any album, here it’s “Eraser” and “Save Myself,” are
good indicators of what the artist is really trying to get across here. “Eraser”
introduced the fact that the life of fame and fortune sucks, “Save Myself”
drives home the weight of it. It alludes to the first song when he says that
life sucks so I just “numb the way it feels” (his “eraser” in a sense) with
drugs and drinking. But then it carries on to say that he now has to take care
of himself before worrying about anyone else. It ends with “before I love
someone else, I got to love myself.”
What’s really interesting about all three of these songs is
how self-aware he is of himself as a person and as an artist. In “What Do I
Know?” he self-deprecates himself as a mere artist trying to give advice about
life to others. “Eraser” and “Save Myself” are similar in that they both
discuss the pitfalls of being a celebrity and drug use. This is not a level
that many other celebrities hit (ok if I hear one more Pitbull song about misogyny
without any remorse I’m going to scream) and especially not at his relatively
young age when most other people are still partying and having a great time
destroying themselves. I’m interested in this turn and want to see where it
goes next.
So if you dislike Ed Sheeran for being a sappy pop artist, I
get it yeah I hate those songs too. But check out some of his other stuff,
because it has a depth that many other artists don’t hit, and that makes him
pretty unique in the pop industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment