Ed is releasing a collection of songs he has performed on tour on CD and vinyl on 27th September.

 

He said: "Finished the last Mathematics show of the year yesterday in Cyprus. We have one more year of this tour then Mathematics is over for good, and onto the next set of symbols…

 

It’s been 15 years of releasing these Mathematics albums and it’s been a hell of a journey so far. I wanted to make a collection of the songs I play on the tour, but also just to have all the big songs in one place for fans, or new coming fans, a journey of where its been and where it is now. The tour collection vinyl / CD will also have some voicenotes from me hidden in them, talking about all my memories behind the songs and from tour, so look out for them.

 

Love being on this journey with you all and excited for what’s next too. Mathematics Tour Collection will be out 27th September, pre-order now, see ya next year for the last run of Maths shows."

 

Essentially, it's a greatest hits album by another name. I'm presuming it will be up to stream and therefore would likely be a very big and long-running chart presence with all the hits on here. It also contains some voice memos, not sure if these will be separate tracks, tacked onto the start or end of existing songs or accessed some other way.

 

Quite interesting that You Need Me, I Don't Need You isn't on here, seeing as it's part of the encore on the tour.

 

CD

 

1. The A Team

2. Lego House

3. Give Me Love

4. Sing

5. Don't

6. Thinking Out Loud

7. Bloodstream

8. Photograph

9. Tenerife Sea

10. I See Fire

11. Castle On The Hill

12. Shape Of You

13. Galway Girl

14. Perfect

15. Happier

16. Dive

17. I Don't Care with Justin Bieber

18. Beautiful People feat. Khalid

19. Afterglow

20. Bad Habits

21. Shivers

22. Eyes Closed

 

Vinyl

 

A1. The A Team

A2. Lego House

A3. Give Me Love

A4. Sing

A5. Don't

 

B1. Thinking Out Loud

B2. Bloodstream

B3. Photograph

B4. Tenerife Sea

B5. I See Fire

 

C1. Castle On The Hill

C2. Shape Of You

C3. Galway Girl

C4. Perfect

C5. Happier

C6. Dive

 

D1. I Don't Care with Justin Bieber

D2. Beautiful People feat. Khalid

D3. Afterglow

D4. Bad Habits

D5. Shivers

D6. Eyes Closed

 

Digital

 

1. The A Team

2. Lego House

3. You Need Me, I Don't Need You

4. Give Me Love

5. Sing

6. Don't

7. Thinking Out Loud

8. Bloodstream

9. Photograph

10. Tenerife Sea

11. I See Fire

12. Lay It All On Me (with Rudimental)

13. Castle On The Hill

14. Shape Of You

15. Galway Girl

16. Perfect

17. Happier

18. Dive

19. I Don't Care with Justin Bieber

20. Beautiful People feat. Khalid

21. Afterglow

22. Bad Habits

23. Shivers

24. Eyes Closed

 

This is the first time on vinyl for Afterglow!

Edited September 9, 2024Sep 9 by gooddelta

Im pretty sure that if you release a greatest hits live album and is flagged as a "Live album" by the occ

then you cannot add the streams from the original studio songs

 

I *think* there is a specific rule about that

I don't think it's live, I think it's just studio versions of the songs performed on tour, unless I've misunderstood.

 

As far as I can see this is a standard greatest hits but I guess also linked to the tour through these voice memos.

Edited September 9, 2024Sep 9 by gooddelta

ah ok bit confusing, I read tour collection and kinda assummed it was gonna be live songs

Only one song from '-' is disappointing. I think 'Curtains' would fit in more than the two No.6 stuff (which are not even part of any math symbol albums, WTH).

Edited September 9, 2024Sep 9 by All★bySmashMouth

Only one song from '-' is disappointing. I think 'Curtains' would fit in more than the two No.6 stuff (which are not even part of any math symbol albums, WTH).

 

I suppose he at least performed them on the tour, so it makes sense in that regard. Otherwise they are curious additions as he has always maintained that No.6 was not in any way related to his main studio album run, yet now these songs are part of the Mathematics era?

 

All the more reason to back my theory that this is a stealth greatest hits apart from by name, designed to get a continual high chart presence from streams of all the big hits included.

 

Btw, the digital version is slightly more extensive, as it's up on iTunes to pre-order.

 

It adds You Need Me, I Don't Need You and Lay It All On Me.

Edited September 9, 2024Sep 9 by gooddelta

Hopefully we will get a radio/video edit version of Give Me Love on streaming out of this.

'You Need Me' is one of his better/more interesting ones!

 

Plus I'd also say a key part of his early success.

Agree that You Need Me is very much one of his best and deserved to be on the physical editions over the likes of Dive and Tenerife Sea?

Maybe the reason why You Need Me I Don't Need You and Lay It All On Me aren’t on the CD version is because they didn’t have space to fit them on and shame they didn’t include Drunk, Small Bump or The Joker And The Queen

Edited September 9, 2024Sep 9 by Hadji

Unannounce it

Agree that You Need Me is very much one of his best and deserved to be on the physical editions over the likes of Dive and Tenerife Sea?

 

I wonder if streaming counts came into play there. Both of those have very high counts and are popular among his fanbase - 701m and 614m respectively on Spotify, whereas You Need Me has 184m. Drunk and Small Bump are also under 250m, but I've not checked if anything on the eventual tracklist has a lower tally - I would imagine not. Very much feels like an exercise to get a big streaming hits album like The Weeknd perhaps?

 

The less cynical side of me though wonders if maybe he sees You Need Me more as a great live track than a studio song. It really comes alive live, when performed full length and on the loop pedal. The eventual hit version was nice but the original version from one of his early EPs was great and maybe has a bit more raw bite that the live version also has.

Are the songs live or studio versions?

Studio I believe, but with added voice notes on some songs on physical editions (although I don’t know how this works, if they are at the start or end of tracks or accessed another way).

Not a bad idea and given the longevity of similar albums like The Weekends I can see why his done it.

 

I’d have liked Drunk and Overpass Graffiti to feature, I know the latter wasn’t that popular. I’d remove the two #6 songs as well.

I actually think it's a terrible idea, sure you'll have a similar situation to The Highlight for the next 75 years but having a Greatest hits have a negative impact on the sales of your studio albums, which is what labels want. There is a reason why people like Rihanna, Beyonce or Coldplay don't have a GH. Cos labels want you to go out and buy all the studio albums.

I actually think it's a terrible idea, sure you'll have a similar situation to The Highlight for the next 75 years but having a Greatest hits have a negative impact on the sales of your studio albums, which is what labels want. There is a reason why people like Rihanna, Beyonce or Coldplay don't have a GH. Cos labels want you to go out and buy all the studio albums.

 

Tbf all featured except - (which only has 1 song) have been pretty huge anyway so doubt it be a massive loss

 

Also LM confetti still managed to crawl to platinum long after BU was released , so there's no guarantee it'll stop people going and buying all studio albums

Yeah, how many more sales are there to realistically rinse out of +, x and Divide? I think he's left this hits collection long enough that those big studio albums have sold the majority of what they are going to sell physically, at least to casual audiences (anniversay reissues might do well in the future).

So is this live or album versions?

Album or possibly radio versions if applicable, but studio not live. There wasn't any confirmation on Ed's initial announcement, but I've found this on his shop:

 

https://store.edsheeran.com/gb/ed-sheeran/-...4197984914.html

 

"This studio album contains some of the biggest songs of Ed’s career to date, along with hidden access to exclusive memos from Ed which are only available when purchasing the vinyl or CD."

Edited September 10, 2024Sep 10 by gooddelta