= (Tour Edition)

“The theme of the record is me turning 30, becoming a dad, losing a friend, trying to balance work and marriage,” Ed Sheeran tells Apple Music of his fourth full-length LP, =. “It’s stuff that really has meant a lot to me.” The follow-up to 2017’s all-conquering ÷ was originally conceived as an acoustic record, with Sheeran setting up in Nashville way back in 2018 to work. You’ll find tracks from that time here (“First Times”, “Love in Slow Motion”), but—with Sheeran restlessly writing and recording right up until its release—= is a typically eclectic record from an artist who has always delighted in confounding expectations. There’s ’80s-inspired pop (the gargantuan “Bad Habits”), sad bangers (“Overpass Graffiti”), a cinematic piano ballad (“The Joker and the Queen”) and even a child’s lullaby, written for his daughter (“Sandman”). All tied together by bare-skinned songwriting, = is Sheeran’s most personal, moving record to date. And he has just one request before you press play. “Please just listen to it once in order, that’s all I ask,” he says. “I don’t care what you do after your first listen. Put songs on a playlist, put the album on shuffle—whatever you want. But you should listen the way it’s intended to be listened to at least once.” And as you do that, read Sheeran’s intimate track-by-track guide to the album here. “Tides” “I had ‘Eraser’ on ÷, which was me summing up the last few years and letting people know where I was. I wanted to do that again, but I didn’t really want to rap this time. I wanted something you could open with in a stadium that was huge, but, at the same time, tiny. So the verse is as chaotic as it comes, it’s just noise: This is what's going on my life. This is my career. And then everything stops. It's about what happened: I became a dad and all the noise was just shut off. Nothing else mattered at that moment.” “Shivers” “I sometimes find myself in a vice-grip choke hold by the past songs I've written or the genre I'm in, or to alw