2023-05-05 22:41:41
‘-‘
Ed Sheeran
Asylum – Atlantic – Warner
Pop people
★★★
the wake of ‘Shape of you’, a theme that in 2017 took the acoustic guitar out of the museum and claimed it as a ‘sexy’ instrument, has been losing some momentum, and the most critical point was the album titled with the symbol ‘=’ (known in English as ‘equels ‘), released a year and a half ago. flimsy work to which now Ed Sheeran responds by attacking from another flank: his new work, ‘-‘ (subtraction sign: ‘subtract’), rests on more collected songs, heartfelt tunes and serious atmosphereseither electronically or through a string arrangement.
It is an album that proposes an operational turn, because Sheeran has subjected his team to a remarkable purge. Regular accomplices such as Johnny McDaid have disappeared and four senior operators enter the scene: three seasoned ‘hit makers’ such as Shellback, Max Martin y Fred Again.. (who had already occasionally collaborated with the redhead from West Yorkshire) and, even more decisive, Aaron Dessnermember of The National, as well as producer of Taylor Swift’s intimate albums, ‘Folclore’ and ‘Evermore’ (both from 2020).
scars that heal
Dessner not only makes his name as a co-producer, but also as a co-writer on most of the songs, and it’s easy to draw comparisons to the prevailing mood of those Swift albums. A introspective, confessional pulse, which Sheeran practices from the first song, ‘Boat’, based on the voice and strumming of the guitar, where he talks about threatening waves (“they won’t break my boat”, he lets it be known) and “scars” that “will heal”. Time to remember that this album is his psychic corrective after some ungrateful episodes: the death of his friend Jamal Edwards (musical entrepreneur) and the cancer of his wife, Cherry Seaborn, when she was pregnant with their second child, as well as, in another order, the anguish derived from the plagiarism trial of ‘Shape of you’, which was resolved in his favor.
From all this emerges a Sheeran more given to sensitive monologue than to sensual flirtation, and there the danger is the song-tostón, in which the singer-songwriter hears himself over serious cloaks of electronic microsurgery. You have to wait until the album is well started to find the most substantial pieces, such as that song about lost time called ‘End of youth’, the welcoming ‘Colourblind’ or the howl of the lost soul of ‘Borderline’, about a minimalist piano
Intimacy results in an excess of liturgical weight in the songs that allude to his wife’s hospital episode (‘Sycamore’, ‘No strings’), and in the opposite direction, the fibrous ‘Curtains’ stands out. With all this, this version of Ed Sheeran as tortured female singer comes out, balancing between emotional filigree and pretentiousness. It will be necessary to see if that public that supported him with ‘Shape of you’ follows him. Jordi Bianciotto
Other albums of the week
‘Secret Life’
Fred Again.. y Brian Eno
Text Records
electronics
★★★
The saddest record of the D’Addario brothers It is also the most beautiful: a collection of acoustic ballads with folk accents and power pop pills that, in the face of life’s setbacks, seek refuge in the glory of a musical past that went extinct long before they were born. There are echoes here of Simon & Garfunkel, Brian Wilson, Big Star and the Carpenters, yes, but also, and above all, a rare talent for writing and performing songs of timeless beauty. Rafael Tapounet
‘Secret Life’
Fred Again.. y Brian Eno
Text Records
electronics
★★★
‘Secret Life’ it’s a beautiful disc. How can it not be? Delicate but absorbent. Masterfully Produced between the ethereal and the intimate. But fly over the feeling of an opportunity not fully taken advantage of. Fred Again.. He is one of the most interesting producers of the moment. Brian Eno, a legend. And yet, we find ourselves with a much less imaginative album than promised. The three hour versionon Brian Eno’s Youtube channel, might seem a lot less digestible, but that’s the really brilliant one. Patri Di Filippo
‘The mouth is watering’
Renaldo & Clara
Primavera Labels
Pop
★★★★
If in the admirable ‘L’amor fa calor’ (2020), Clara Vinals he outlined a more relaxed and less melancholic style, in his replacement he accentuates the turn with playful tunes, hints of funny cockiness and bold arrangements. Gourmet melodic confectionerywith slender silhouettes in ‘Globus’ or ‘El riu’, sensual invectives in the urban ‘It’s better in the street’ and diabluras shared with Hidrogenesse in ‘Encaix’. Probably one of our pop records of the year. J. B.
‘Pieces of Treasure’
Rickie Lee Jones
BMG Modern Recordings
Jazz
★★★★
Never before had the duchess of ‘cool’ recorded a whole disk of standards. Neither she nor she had the voice or the resources to compete with the great divas of jazz. But at the Rickie Lee Jones from ‘Pieces of Treasure’, almost 70 years old and a long road behind him, he doesn’t need it. Vulnerable and hurt, but also a mischievous point, Jones drags his indolent voice through verses said with a sadness that shudders. At the end of the record, ‘It’s all in the game’, a contained sob is heard. If it is theater, it is theater of the best. Roger Rock
#Sheeran #tortured #singersongwriter #album