Do you like Ed Sheeran? Maybe yes, maybe no. I think there was an era where the thought of his music made my blood boil a little bit. It’s because I was working in River Island at the time and I had to endure Shape of You (good song but wish it was recorded by Rihanna – who turned it down), Castle on the Hill (dreadful) and Galway Girl (worst song in the history of music). This built up a resentment to The Sheeran from me – and his ubiquitous chart domination was tiresome. To be fair to the bloke, Bad Habits is a bit of a banger and I don’t mind Azizam. You will notice however that of recent, whilst Ed Sheeran has been performing relatively well commercially – by the standards he’s set for himself in the past, he’s flopping hard. Now Ed Sheeran just clapped back at how he feels he’s “the punching bag” as his new album flops.
Ed feels like he’s a punchline to jokes
@popcast Will @Ed Sheeran’s musical reputation go the way of Coldplay and Phil Collins? He talked to Popcast about maybe transcending the jokes, eventually. #edsheeran #play #music #pop #fyp ♬ original sound – Popcast (Deluxe)
Speaking on the New York Times podcast, Ed Sheeran opened up and said “I am still a punchline to jokes. I feel like when Bad Habits came out, no one liked it. I feel like when Shivers came out no one liked it. It’s only like five years down the line where people are like ‘oh, it’s actually an alright pop song.’
Ed continued: “I don’t know what a f*cking good Pitchfork review would do for me. Looking at Chris Martin recently, I just think at some point you transcend all of it. I think Coldplay as a whole are transcending it because they were punching bags for years. I’m a huge Coldplay fan, I grew up listening to their music. I will always tell him they were massively influential on me. But they were punching bags for years.
“There comes a point in your career where you transcend it. I think I’m not at that point yet.”
For Ed Sheeran standards, new album Play is flopping
Okay, it is flopping by Ed Sheeran STANDARDS – because according to midweek charts it will still hit number one on the UK albums chart. Unjustly beating Jade Thirlwall and her debut album That’s Showbiz Baby. But things are not all well with Play. The singles have charted fine – but nothing has been a huge hit like is the usual standard for Ed.
Worse still, Play on its first day on Spotify received 12,727,499 streams. This is less than Addison Rae got when she debuted her first ever album Addison – which got 13,447,261. It’s crazy that an artist like Addison is out streaming a megastar like Ed Sheeran.
I can’t help but feel a bit sorry for Ed Sheeran as his album flops – this era is not his worst music and if he ever deserves to not be a punching bag it’s now. Just how the cookie crumbles sometimes I guess.
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