With the singles “Azizam” and “Old Phone” already creating big buzz and viral moments, Ed Sheeran has confirmed a Sept. 12 release date for his new album, Play, through Gingerbread Man Records/Atlantic.
Sheeran says Play “was made as a direct response to the darkest period of my life. Coming out of all of that, I just wanted to create joy and technicolor, and explore cultures in the countries I was touring. I made this record all over the world, finished it in Goa, India, and had some of the most fun, explorative creative days of my life. It’s a real rollercoaster of emotions from start to finish. It encapsulates everything that I love about music, and the fun in it, but also where I am in life as a human, a partner, a father.”
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“Old Phone” was launched in tandem with the new Instagram account @teddysoldphone, which is resurfacing unseen photos from a cellular device Sheeran stopped using 10 years ago. Sheeran has already played the song during a set in a pop-up pub at Coachella and at Nashville’s tiny Santa’s Pub with help from Noah Kahan.
“Going into this album campaign, I said to myself, I just want everything I do to be fun and playful,’ so that’s why we are building pubs for folk jams, doing gigs on open top buses and singing in pink cowboy hats on bars,” Sheeran reveals. “The older I get, the more I just want to enjoy things, and savor the moments that are mad and chaotic.”
Sheeran is on tour internationally through early September.
Here is the track list for Play:
Opening
Sapphire
Azizam
Old Phone
Symmetry
Camera
In Other Words
A Little More
Slowly
Don’t Look Down
The Vow
For Always
Heaven
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