But why not? It's had singles released? Music videos? It's released on all platforms? What's actually the difference between this album (besides the fact it's got the word 'project' in the title) and his other albums?

 

If it was a massive smash seller he'd be taking credit for it and saying he had "xx amount of million selling albums" but it seems like he's labelled it like this so if it flops or underperforms he can just say 'it wasn't an album anyway'.

 

This album is a collection of songs spanning vastly different genres packaged together into the format of an album, it's designed to target basically every conceivable market but targeting different markets with different songs, the album as a whole package doesn't and surely wasn't designed to fully appeal to nearly anyone (which his other albums were as they had much more cohesion), so it was not going to attract the same level of pure sales and was always going to be more reliant on people cherrypicking their favourite songs on streaming. Especially as most of the singles were more mainstream pop / hip-hop leaning while his previous massive album sales, at least as far as physical sales go, can almost certainly be mostly attributed to people who favoured his more ballad / folk-ish songs which lend themselves more to selling albums. It's almost more like a Now That's What I Call Music album than a normal artist album lol ~

 

And once again, an album being promoted does not mean it isn't a side project, I don't understand how people are making this logical leap.

 

Also he'd have every right to take credit for it having massive sales when he didn't expect it to? :lol:

But why not? It's had singles released? Music videos? It's released on all platforms? What's actually the difference between this album (besides the fact it's got the word 'project' in the title) and his other albums?

 

If it was a massive smash seller he'd be taking credit for it and saying he had "xx amount of million selling albums" but it seems like he's labelled it like this so if it flops or underperforms he can just say 'it wasn't an album anyway'.

It was a different concept from the very start, it's nothing to do with "if it flops". It's Ed Sheeran, it was never going to flop when the singles were smartly picked to be the most radio friendly tracks.

 

The difference between this and the other albums is the fact it's got an actual concept - collaborations. It was a project he worked on between albums to follow up his pre-fame EP. That's what makes it different and I think it's pretty obvious?

Also another argument that I've been over before back when it came out... even if there is no real difference between an 'album' and something that's not an 'album', the way these projects are marketed does still demonstrably make a difference, with projects marketed as actual albums almost invariably performing better. Drake's 'More Life' era isn't materially much different to the 'real' albums released either side of it but it still made significantly less impact because it was marketed as a 'playlist' rather than an album and received less promotion.

 

(sorry this is going way off topic and just rehashing an argument that was already had months ago, lemme shut up x)

I will say that whilst I'm a fan of Ed, I've grown cold on the 'Divide' era since it came out three years ago (nearly said two, forgetting we were in a new year) to the point I just kept the handful of tracks I liked from it on my hard drive and sold my copy on. Put side by side with his first two albums, for me there was a marked downturn in quality control, and really 'Castle on the Hill' was it's one strong single for me.

 

When he does do a proper new album next - which will probably be a year hence, given he's just gone on another hiatus - I hope he comes back with something a little more in keeping with his earlier material. The simplicity of that material was what made him charming and engaging in the first place, and I rather think he lost sight of all of that whilst consciously chasing 'hits'.

When he does do a proper new album next - which will probably be a year hence, given he's just gone on another hiatus - I hope he comes back with something a little more in keeping with his earlier material. The simplicity of that material was what made him charming and engaging in the first place, and I rather think he lost sight of all of that whilst consciously chasing 'hits'.

 

Agreed! I actually even rather liked him up until the Divide era, but he's just completely lost any shred of authenticity since then. I think 'Castle on the Hill' and 'Cross Me' are the only two things he's been involved in that I've liked. :(

Did someone in this thread compare Ed's output to Liam Payne and Mabel because they have used some of the same co-writers Jesus christ.

 

Whether you want to admit it or not, Ed's music is more authentic and has way more input in it than most pop artists. He plays his music live as a 1 man band with a loop pedal too.

 

It is his writing, his songs, his instrumentation and he can perform it all solo on his own without any assistance. That is why he gets an authentic tag and rightly so.

The reason why Ed Sheeran is so popular is just Ed Sheeran is a Mozart, Beethoven comparing to other contemporarry musicians.

 

Just look at Ariana grande, Iggy Azalea, Nicki Minaj etc and you will understand

 

He persuaded his fanboys he makes real ambitious music and they believed it.

 

Nothing special ut level or two above adriana

, Mabel etc

Ed just presents us his music instead of arse, lingerie etc. And this category people who appreciated it make Ed their favourite

I don’t understand his appeal at all. In my opinion his personality is very fake and conniving! I find him very unlikable.

Also some of his lyrics, songs and videos are awful.

 

Meanwhile the UK has some fantastic singer songwriters that don’t get half enough attention e.g. James Morrison.

 

 

Yes he is right kind of brat privately

 

But look at Lewis Capaldi. Copied James Arthur style and look what he says in Metro etc, lot of bollocks.

 

Still people buy it

 

You an sell anything in UK, people just buy you are yourself and have a style.

 

BTW is harry Styles gay? It looks like!

He's just the latest in a long line of people doing the same thing. James Morrison, James Blunt, Paolo Nutini etc. etc. Except he wisely didn't take hiatuses early on & invested his money wisely in image & music videos & market research to keep people interested.

Did someone in this thread compare Ed's output to Liam Payne and Mabel because they have used some of the same co-writers Jesus christ.

Ironically this tone of response proves what was said is right, in that how someone is marketed & thus how they’re perceived is crucial. It makes people react all incredulously if someone like Ed is dared to be compared to other artists.

 

It shows precisely how Liam Payne got it all incredibly wrong with his image, despite the fact that ‘Stack It Up’ (his album launch single) isn’t a world away from the recent music Ed has been peddling very successfully. It is in fact an Ed Sheeran written song, co-written with Fred Gibson and Steve Mac, who are all over Divide & No. 6 Collaborations Project (writing and production duties). I dare say if this song had been released as “Ed Sheeran feat. A Boogie wit da Hoodie’ and included on his recent album, it would have done better as an album track than it did for Liam as a full blown single, and not experienced the universally bad reception that Liam received.

 

I’d be interested to know your specific reasons to scoff at the Mabel comparison! Are you aware that she has writing credits for every song on her album?

 

The interesting thing is that critics see through the “authentic/talented/down-to-earth artist” marketing & don’t regard his recent output as being all that special (the Divide & No. 6 reviews were overall tepid at best) but for the public & ardent fans he can clearly do no wrong!

I see this album as a colection of singles, he may had released them one by one instead of all together...and it´s the second most sold album of the year, so, even when he hasn´t sold as much as with his previous albums, it´s a success

Sheeran is essentially a hitmaker who writes songs to several artists. His authenticity comes from being very recognizable - One can tell if a song is written by Sheeran.

 

It helps when creating an image but also makes songs very formulaic easily.

Edited January 7, 20205 yr by SKOB

Ironically this tone of response proves what was said is right, in that how someone is marketed & thus how they’re perceived is crucial. It makes people react all incredulously if someone like Ed is dared to be compared to other artists.

 

It shows precisely how Liam Payne got it all incredibly wrong with his image, despite the fact that ‘Stack It Up’ (his album launch single) isn’t a world away from the recent music Ed has been peddling very successfully. It is in fact an Ed Sheeran written song, co-written with Fred Gibson and Steve Mac, who are all over Divide & No. 6 Collaborations Project (writing and production duties). I dare say if this song had been released as “Ed Sheeran feat. A Boogie wit da Hoodie’ and included on his recent album, it would have done better as an album track than it did for Liam as a full blown single, and not experienced the universally bad reception that Liam received.

 

I’d be interested to know your specific reasons to scoff at the Mabel comparison! Are you aware that she has writing credits for every song on her album?

 

The interesting thing is that critics see through the “authentic/talented/down-to-earth artist” marketing & don’t regard his recent output as being all that special (the Divide & No. 6 reviews were overall tepid at best) but for the public & ardent fans he can clearly do no wrong!

 

If Ed is giving away a song he has written you can assume 2 things, he either doesn't think it fits himself as an artist or isn't good enough for him to release. He isn't giving Liam Payne a Thinking out loud let's be real.

 

I'm not going to argue that his music is any more 'authentic' than any other pop music because it obviously isn't, No.6 was a focus grouped project geared at giving him a ton of hit singles and there's totally legitimate criticism of the music / 'artistry' involved in it, hence it getting ripped apart by the critics and pretty justifiably so. That's 95% of all pop music. But come on, this is a massive stretch. The title is A) a literal description of what the project is and B) a reference to one of his older EPs, I don't know how you think anyone is seeing the title 'No.6 Collaborations Project' and thinking that it must be some low budget weird experimental project with no-name artists when it's very clearly got a ton of huge names on it (and of course it does, it's an update to the concept of the last EP that reflects that he's now a bigger artist). And he's not exactly going to come out marketing it as 'lol I don't care about this music at all it's just what the label told me to do', neither would any other pop artist?

Wow he put one flexing line into a rap song, world shocked. I don't understand why you seem to think this lyric is so uniquely awful that you've pointed it out a good 10 times, it was so painfully predictable you'd mention it in this thread eventually.

 

Never mind that the whole song is about how he's had big success but still wants to come back home to do simple things, completely fitting his 'everyman' image. Is he supposed to just never acknowledge that he's had massive achievements?

predictable but true

Ed always compares himself to the great singer-songwriters in the past but you don't see Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen writing oh I made 5 million in my last tour

You live in an alternative universe if you think Ed is a good lyricist

predictable but true

Ed always compares himself to the great singer-songwriters in the past but you don't see Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen writing oh I made 5 million in my last tour

You live in an alternative universe if you think Ed is a good lyricist

Ed is not Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen. He has also written far worse lyrics than that lol. Equally, look at Thinking Out Loud - you don't have to like the song to find it well written. You're projecting your personal opinion onto everyone else.

Ed just presents us his music instead of arse, lingerie etc. And this category people who appreciated it make Ed their favourite

Not sure I'd want to see Ed's arse in lingerie :unsure:

actually I think this is the worst argument I've seen in here to defend Ed

arguing that he has the right to brag in his songs

 

no he doesn't

and any good lyricist wouldn't brag about sales in his songs

So survivor by Destiny's child is a shit song and everyone on here hates it and them and Beyonce 'Thought we wouldn't sell without you sold 9m'

Edited January 7, 20205 yr by sammy01

actually I think this is the worst argument I've seen in here to defend Ed

arguing that he has the right to brag in his songs

 

no he doesn't

and any good lyricist wouldn't brag about sales in his songs

Why does he not have the right? It's a silly suggestion quite frankly.