Ed Sheeran’s new album “Equals”
The long awaited new Ed Sheeran album “Equals” dropped on October 29th, 2021, and got every Ed Sheeran fan out there excited for it. It was slightly annoying that he skipped completely over minus and went straight to equals for the album name, but that’s besides the point. I personally listened to every song while I was in one of my study halls on that Friday. I enjoyed the album, and a lot of the songs on the album were not what I was expecting. Many of them didn’t sound like the typical Ed Sheeran sound. Many of them sounded like he was stepping out of his comfort zone a little bit. Today I will weigh in on each of the songs that Ed Sheeran has put on the “Equals” album. In total there are 14 songs on this album including “Bad Habits,” “Visiting hours,” and “Shivers” which he released prior to the full album being released.
“Bad Habits”
The first song that was released for the album was “Bad Habits.” This was what set the tone for the entire album. It is a good song to play at any party and is something I played on repeat for weeks. It brings the fun from Ed’s previous album “Divide” and is one of the better songs on the album. There really is no deeper meaning to this song. It simply is a fun song about bad habits and talking to strangers we barely know.
“Visiting Hours”
“Visting Hours” is a heartfelt song that is about the afterlife and what Ed would do if he could go back and talk to his past relatives one last time. He also talks about how his daughter is getting older and how he wishes the people in heaven met her before they died. He then goes through how everything he is going to teach her is things that he learned from his dead realtives. The main basis of this song is even though you are dead you are still going to live through me on Earth. I will keep your memory alive on Earth while you are in the afterlife. The one line that stands out to me the most in this song is “Cause this is not goodbye it’s just until we meet again.” This is a very true line, as long as you believe in heaven or the afterlife you will se your relatives again. It is just a matter of time.
“Shivers”
This is a standout song on this album. It doesn’t sound like anything Ed has ever produced before. The closest match to this song would be “Shape of You” from his “Divide” album. There is a lot to be said for this song. I feel like Ed really was putting himself out there with “Shivers.” The music video was loud, fancy, and eyecatching which is a lot different from what he has done in the past. In the past, a lot of his music videos have not been as fancy and eyecatching as “Shivers” was. But Ed channeled his inner Elton John and put on a show for his audience! This song has an upbeat and jazzy tempo that makes this song unforgettable once you hear it.
“Sandman”
This song gave me so many nostalgia vibes. I listened to this the Friday that it came out, and I swear I have heard it somewhere before. I don’t know what it is about it, but it is now permanently stuck in my brain. This song is talking about Ed Sheeran becoming a new dad and how he and his wife are always going to always protect their daughter. He wants the best for his daughter and will do anything to make sure that she gets to live in the best world possible. He talks about how his daughter is being guided on a journey through life by the Sandman and how he will lead her through her dreams and her own life. This is an easy listening song and I recommend it for anyone who is a little stressed out.
“Joker and the Queen”
This is probably the slowest song on the new album, but it happens to be my favorite off of the album. Now I tend to gravitate towards the slower music, but this is a standout song for me. It is basically the story of Romeo and Juliet. The chorus is “And I know you could fall for a thousand kings and hearts that would give you a diamond ring. When I fold, you see the best in me.
The joker and the queen.” The “Joker” per say wants to be with the quote on quote “Queen.” The Queen also wants to be with the Joker, but they can’t be together because the Joker is not royalty. It is a forbidden love between the two and the Queen could fall in love with a thousand different people who are royalty, but she will always come back to the Joker who is her only love. The song does not have a lot of words to it, but there is a lot to be said for the words that are in it. They tell the story of a forbidden love that can never be, but there is also another way that I have seen people interpret the song.
Other people interpret the song as playing poker and an actual deck of cards. Ed’s wife is the Queen card and Ed is the Joker, a card that is not often used in any card game. There is a line that says “when I fold, you see the best in me, the joker and the queen.” Folding is what people say in poker when they have lost of forfeit the game. Ed Sheeran is a joker and lost the game of poker, but his queen still sees the best in him no matter what. Either way you look at it, I highly recommend this song, and as I mentioned before this is my favorite song on the album!
“Leave Your Life”
“Leave Your Life” is a song about how Ed is telling his wife all of the things that he loves about her and how mcuh she means to him. There is no place that he would rather be than with her, and he wants her to know that whenever he leaves he will always return back to her. Even if they are miles and countries away he will eventually find her no matter what. There is a lot to be said for this song. It takes a sincere message and puts it into a happy, yet mellow, song that carries everything that he loves about his wife. It also shows that even if he is at a bad place with his wife/family he will always come back to them. I personally think that is sweet, but I think it is sweet when any artist writes a song about his/her family.
“Tides”
If I had one phrase to describe this song it would be the Ed Sheeran version of heavy metal. Ed Sheeran, at least I don’t think, could be like Jon Bon Jovi and thrive in the world of rock. But of he were to enter that realm of music, this would be his debut single. It has a lot of electric guitar in the background and a heavy drum hit keeping the tempo in the background. The tempo of the song itself is a little faster and incorprates a little bit of faster singing from Sheeran. The lyrics of this song are about how he is a dad but he doesn’t feel like he has changed in any way. He was expecting to feel like a completely different person but he doesn’t feel like a new person, but he realizes that is not a bad thing.
“First Times”
This is a good example of the acoustic talent of Ed Sheeran. This song talks about how you only get one first time and that if you only get one first time you should make it good. You will always remember the first time you do somethign so you might as well go big or go home. In the song Ed Sheeran talks about all the firsts in his romantic life. First kisses, first songs that made her cry, the first night, the first child, and every first time he will ever have. This song is honestly a message to society. If you only have this one shot to do something you have never done before how do you want to remember that moment? It is a bit of a slower pace, but overall I love it. It might be the guitar in the background, but I love this song.
“Overpass Graffiti”
At first I was a little on the fence with Overpass Graffiti. I didn’t really know if I liked it or not until I listened to it a few times through. Then I actually listened closer to the lyrics and I then decided that I enjoyed the song. Once I actually figured out what the song was trying to get across I think that is what drew me to liking it more. The basic break down of the song is that Ed Sheeran is singing about a breakup that he had a while ago. Now even though he is married and has a kid he will always love her in a way. He won’t want to have the romantic relationship with her, but he will always have a connection with her that won’t fade over the years. He will always be left with that connection no matter how old he gets.
“2step”
There is a song on every album where Ed Sheeran attempts to rap and succeeds, but doesn’t exactly sound like rap we are used to in this day and age. At my house we call it the world of Sheeran rap and honestly this is probably one of the better “rap” songs that he has done. The song also manages to involve a lot of the slow and calm aspects of Ed’s music. The verses of the song are at a faster pace and sung a lot faster than the chorus. The chorus, at least to me, seems a lot slower than the actual verse of the song. That makes me happy though it combines the best of both worlds in that case.
“Stop the Rain”
For some reason I had really low expectations for this song when it first came out. I don’t know why it just didn’t give me good vibes when I looked at it. But this song is one that I could really relate to when it came to content of the song. This song is basically saying that yeah people will knock you down, yeah people will get inside your head, yeah there will be bad days where you get inside your own head, but everything will be okay in the end. Just keep your head up and keep moving on with life. I am the kind of person that will often overthink everything and I am very high strung. This kind of explained basically all of grade school for me. People will knock you down, people will be mean and nasty, people will do things they shouldn’t do, but you can’t stop that storm. You just need to pick yourself up and move on with life. I think this song does a really good job at explaining that on a different level.
“Be Right Now”
This song honestly hits home for me. I am that kind of person who will constantly think about the future and who will wonder what is in store for me. This song, in my eyes, sums that up. Ed doesn’t want to worry about what is going to happen in the future because he will miss everything that is happening in the present. You need to stay in the present and just go with the flow, what happens in the future is out of your control and you just need to stay centered and move on with life. There is not much to say about this song, it sounds like the typical Ed Sheeran that we know and love. I think this is one of the middle ranked songs in the album if I’m being honest. I like it, it just isn’t as good as some of the other ones.
“Collide”
“Collide” talks a lot about Ed being with his wife and when him and her are together they are unstopable. In a way, when ed says “you bring me to life,” he really means that his wife brigns a different part of him alive. It makes him feel emotions and want to do things that he has never done before. It also talk about how the pair can do anything when they get together and put their minds to the task at hand.
“Love in Slow Motion”
“Love in Slow Motion” is definately higher up on my list of songs on the new album. It just sounds great when it comes down to it. There’s not really much I can say about it. The only part I can weigh in on is the fact that I have gotten so caught up in things that I do as Ed talked about in the beginning of the song. I often push of friends when I feel like I have to focus on too many things at one time, and I never really think twice about it. Sometime we just need to slow down and appreciate the friends, family, and people we love in our lives.
Final Thoughts
My final thoughts on this album are that it is overall pretty good. If I had to pick a best song for me it would definately be Joker and the Queen. I don’t think there really is a bad song on this album. There are songs I love and then there’s songs that I like. There really is no horrible song, there are great songs and then all of the other songs kind of mush together into one big tie. “Equals” also has a good mix of newer Ed Sheeran vibes and older Ed Sheeran vibes. It was definately worth the two year wait!
