Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran announces new album ‘=’

Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran on Thursday announced that his latest and fourth album “=” will come out on October 29. He made the announcement in a social media post that was captioned: “My 4th studio album ‘=‘ comes out October 29th, and is available to preorder today on all platforms, cd, vinyl and cassette.”

He added that he started writing and recording the album in June 2017. The album, titled = (pronounced equals), has a cover featuring butterflies and an image of a chrysalis.

The singer-songwriter opened up about the imagery during one of his Instagram live-sessions and said “it represents “new life – I’ve been through, over the last four years, different experiences in life, including getting married, having a kid, losing a friend”.

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Ed Sheeran released a track titled ‘Visiting Hours’ along with the announcement of the album and sung it during the live. 

The album comprises 14 songs, which Sheeran said he cut down from a much longer list in a “painstaking process. They all have their place – I love it, I think it’s the best piece of work I’ve done, it’s cohesive and it feels great,” he said.

In July, lead single Bad Habits broke the charts and became his 10th UK No 1 hit and reigned on the list for seven continuous weeks. The next single from = will be released on 10 September.

Ed Sheeran, in a written statement, said = is “a coming of age record. I’ve never been more proud of a body of work”.

After releasing his third album in 2017, titled ÷, Sheeran set out on a world tour that lasted two and a half years, becoming the highest-grossing and most-attended tour of all time. The tour generated over £567m ($776m) from 260 concerts and 8.5 million sold tickets. 

It was during the same tour that he collaborated with Justin Bieber, Eminem and Stormzy, for another album titled No 6 Collaborations Project, released in 2019. This one too made it to the top in the UK and found itself among the UK Top 5 singles. 

His magnum opus, 2014’s x, is the 49th biggest-selling album ever in the UK. 

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However, ÷ had his most successful song to date ‘Shape of You’, which became the most-streamed song in history. 

Sheeran is celebrating the 10th anniversary of his debut album + by playing it in full at a concert at the relatively intimate venue, London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire, on 2 September.