Last Album Covered
Divide
By: Ed Sheeran
Ed’s influence years before
Years before I actually started playing guitar I had wanted to learn because of a song Ed had written called Thinking Out Loud from his album “Multiply” which I had also considered doing before settling on Divide. Years later I would eventually learn the song and he’d keep putting more stuff out and I’d keep learning and liking it.
Divide is this mans best selling album and I think, just taking a survey though his discography, rightfully so. To me it feels like his most “well put together” album. I’m a fan of his stuff and enjoy many other albums of his that have gone more under the radar than this one such as “No. 6 Collaborations” or “Equals” but overall as a whole I’m not surprised that Divide is his best selling record. It’s very pop.
I’ve listened to Ed’s music for much of his career and hadn’t really considered how much music he’s actually put out. He has literally upwards of a hundred songs over a little more than a decade and has for sure written many more that he hasn’t put out. He’s an artist and it's evident to me that he does what he does because he loves the craft and I admire and respect that. He’s actually a writer not just a performer. I heard Logic or Eminem say something to the effect of “the day someone else writes for me, I’m done cause it means I’m out of things to say.” They care about the writing process not the rewards that come with it.
Someone else I'll say does this and is evident to me is Chris Renzema. Literally this has nothing to do with this album but I love Chris's music and am just giving him a shout out =D
With that we can get into the music bellow where I’ll share some thoughts and stories related to the songs.
Castle on the Hill
Starting off strong with Castle on the Hill. I remember hearing this song for the first time watching his carpool karaoke with James Corden. Must have been when he was promoting the release of this album. I remember my first thought when hearing it was “this is roadtrippy”.
Lyrically this song certainly doesn’t reflect my personal lived experience. I’ve never smoked or gotten drunk and ran from the law (nor am I particularly inclined to I might add) but the spirit that inhabits this song is a kind of nostalgia that I don’t think I fully understand, but I’m sure the more you live the more you get to.
Ed Sheeran will be part of the canonized nostalgia of this time
There are artists that when we today say “the 80’s” immediately come to mind. Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, ABBA and so forth. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the 2050’s Ed sheeran holds a similar status of this time because of, including but of course not limited to, this next song.
Perfect
What an song. There are things that are so universal that you’re shocked if someone hasn’t at least heard of them. Jesus, the moon, Allah, idk!? You don’t have to know a whole lot about them but you’re at least aware of them… Perfect is one of these songs that everyone everywhere over the age of literally five knows.
I’ve heard Ed talk about how when he writes a song it’s his but once he puts it out into the world it becomes everyone else’s. It becomes part of our lives at intimate moments like weddings, dates, and family time and more than just being part of his story it becomes part of ours as well. It becomes like a tree of life giving generously to those who encounter it. It’s a gift this song is to many peoples lives.
There’s a version of this song that my cousin showed me with Andrea Bocelli. I’d never heard of him before but he’s an Italian opera singer and he and Ed collaborated and did a version of Perfect half in Italian. I’ve been trying to integrate and use spanish outside of talking at home so I was like “you know what I could do…?” This is the thing I did; bilingual cover of perfect.
It’s generally a good idea to double down on your strengths and things that make you unique
In my case I speak spanish. It’s not the most unique thing in the world, there’s only half a billion other people who do, but it is something I have the ability to do that not everyone does and so I can use that to my advantage. To us, our own lives might be mundane, but to everyone else, the things we take for granted are pretty freaking cool. This is a sort of pep talk for me and hopefully encouragement for you to lean into your strengths and don’t shy away from them even if they’re things you don’t think are particularly “special”. It doesn’t have to be unique it just has to be you. You know how many freaking covers of these songs there are!?
Hearts Don’t Break Around Here
X
Best Part of Me
This doesn’t make sense to me…
On every album there’s some songs that rise to the top and are more popular than the rest such as the first two songs; but this one here I don’t know why it isn’t more popular! This feels to me to “Perfect” like what “Photograph” is to “Thinking Out Loud.” It’s not the hit song song off the album but it’s right up there lyricaly. Everyone knows Photograph but I’ve never heard anyone mention “Hearts Don’t Break Around Here” and that doesn’t make sense to me.
I remember early on when it was still a new song hearing it and thinking it would be more popular than it is today. Honestly I think the reason for this is musically the song is more mellow. It’s not slow and sad, it’s not fast and happy, and it’s not a romantic ballad, it’s somewhere in the middle. All that to say I think this song is underrated.
I mashed this song with another song I like from his No.6 Collaborations Album called “Best Part of Me”. The song features YEBBA who I’ve never heard of both up until and since then but it’s a lovely song which I like and literally when I play "Hearts…” half the time I find myself accidentally playing Best Part of Me so the mashup was bound to happen.
What Do I Know?
I remember learning this song
T’was sat on my couch practicing the song after I had just learned it. I was struggling to get the transitions smoothly but it was at a time when I had already been playing guitar for a good while. I genuinely knew I could do it, it was just a matter of practice and time. Now I literally play it without even thinking, but that inner confidence of knowing for a fact that you can, is, now that I think of it, something I haven’t had in a while. Trying to recover it atm.
Barcelona
I remember before I even tried learning this song thinking it sounded complicated because it had spanish influence and I had never really played spanishy music, but when I learned it, it’s literally not even hard. It’s like doing something for the first time when you’re daunted but literally just do/try it and you’ll likely be better for it.
On a side note I’ve been, in real time, learning some of Stevie Wonder’s songs and it sounds so complicated because of how many different things are going on but the basic chords underneath it all aren’t really that complicated (depending on the song), though they are different from anything I’ve played before.
Final Thoughts
I wanna shout out the fact that I bought a tie-dye shirt specifically to match with the album cover XD. As a general rule in life, you should do things you’re proud of. This project is an outlet for me to do just that. The attention to detail, like the fit, is a part of this.
In real time, I got to go see Ed live in concert on his Mathematics tour. He played NRG stadium in Houston, which is pretty freaking huge! This was in May 2023.
Since I really already knew most of these songs well, this one wasn’t much of a learning experience as it was just an excuse to perform (although I did learn Perfect in spanish just for the live show I did :). If you want to see an album I covered where I really did have to learn to play the songs for the first time, click the left and right arrows bellow. You can also check out my Twitch streams and YouTube.
Thanks for reading and checking out my covers. Until next time.