‘Play’ is totally skip-worthy

By Libby D’Orvilliers

Believe it or not, Ed Sheeran’s eighth studio album is here, and, well … it is not necessarily better than ever.

Released on Sept. 8 to mild public excitement “Play” is a 13-track album that Sheeran previously teased on social media back in March to be “playful, explorative, and celebratory.”

After releasing rather under-the-radar albums since 2023, I went into my first listen of the album skeptical of if Sheeran had another “playful” chart-topping hit, like his 2017 song “Shape of You,” in him.

Just to ensure that I was not being “chronically offline” and missed out on any possible hype around this record, I asked my 9:10 a.m. Psychological Tests class if they had heard anything about a new Ed Sheeran album. Only one out of 15 students in the room raised their hand. So, I was not too far out of the loop in my ignorance surrounding this particular release.

Branching out from his previous series of records that were all mathematical symbols, “Play” is to be the first of a new string of albums to be titled after “media control symbols.” According to Sheeran in a 2025 interview on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” the next four records are to be titled “Pause,” “Fast Forward,” “Rewind” and “Stop.” While I think that this is a cool concept and marketing strategy, I am having difficulty seeing the project going forward. Will Sheeran have enough notable songs left in him to fill four more full-length albums of the same caliber as the mathematics album pentalogy?

The album opens with a song aptly titled, “Opening.” The track starts off with a reflective mood, featuring a slower rhythm and lyrics that seem to contemplate Sheeran’s recent years and struggles. Then it sharply switches about half-way through to a more up-tempo beat, perhaps reflecting a transition out of the more down-trodden and reflective nature of and into the current “playful” album.

Yet, the album goes on and seems to fall flat in delivering the dynamic shift in style that the artist had been prophesying. With tracks such as “Symmetry” and “Camera” slotted on the lineup to play right next to each other, they both sound like they could have been pulled from any of Sheeran’s previous albums and do not have any particular unique feel to the individual songs, much less to the overall album.

Additionally, the ninth track, “Slowly” sounds like Sheeran was trying to make the tune another hit ballad-like song akin to his 2017 hit “Perfect.” The lyrics are basic and uninspiring, particularly in comparison to the moody, heartwarming words featured in “Perfect.” I must admit that the vocal performances on this track are impressive as Sheeran hit some impressive notes, however, the lyrics do not lend themselves well to these powerful belty sounds.

Do you happen to remember that song that was on the radio back in early April for a bit, “Aziam?” That song was the first single from this record, and falls on the record as track It is one of the better more pop-like songs on the record, uniquely blending cross-cultural music styles with his usual sound, yet it is pretty much as unmemorable as it was when it first was released and sort of gets lost in all the repetitious noise of the rest of the record.

As much as Sheeran wanted “Play” to be an “explorative” record, it did not feel like that to me. It seems like Sheeran was trying to be “different” by adding in a few cross-cultural beats and styles here and there, but did not commit to it enough to make it stand out as anything new or different from his typical sound.

Overall, I would describe the album as “easy listening” and is consistent with a  background-music-feel that transports me back to shopping in a Macy’s department store circa 2019. Without advertisements for Mr. Clean Magic Eraser popping up on my Spotify every three songs or so and interrupting my listening experience, I might not have been able to tell I was listening to a different song from the previous one, since they all seemed to blend together.

All in all, this is not the pop record, or anything close to the “dramatic shift,” many individuals, seemingly including Sheeran himself, expected it to be. If you could not tell, I do not think it is anything to write home about.

The album’s total play time is just shy of 45 minutes and for me that is just enough. Needless to say, I will be pressing pause and skipping out on listening to the extended edition of “Play” for the foreseeable future. 

While the record might be really fun to see live, unfortunately, Sheeran’s “Loop Tour” is only scheduled for Europe and Oceania. So, if you want to experience the album in person, you will have to pay a pretty price to fly across the globe — an effort I certainly do not anticipate would be worth it, but I will let you form your own opinion on that.

Libby D’Orvilliers is a senior psychology major