Ed Sheeran: '+' - Album review

Published Sep 9 2011, 16:41 BST  |  By Robert Copsey

We're a bit confused by Ed Sheeran. After years of nightly gigging, sofa surfing and tirelessly self-promoting, he signed a major label deal and spent three months in the top ten with his first single 'The A Team' - only to criticise the very industry he's entered on follow-up 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You'.

Cocksure it may sound, but it's easy to sympathise with his situation; having spent six years gathering a loyal fanbase of anti-commercialists while he independently put out six EPs and three albums, it would be dangerous to leave them behind for the sake of a chart hit.

It's a troubling spot, made only trickier by Sheeran's acoustic singer-songwriter image mixed with his geeky, white-boy rapper persona on his first commercial effort +. It's a challenge he carries off with relative ease on standouts 'Grade 8' and 'Drunk', where the Damien Rice-meets-Wiley sound blends together in the same unexpected fashion as a bacon and peanut butter sandwich.

His years in-waiting have equipped him with the skills for a bona fide chart hit - 'Lego House' and 'Give Me Love' are riddled with earworm hooks - but it's the sharpness of his lyrics that shine brightest: the breakdown of a school-yard relationship on 'U.N.I' and the frank but emotional details of a miscarriage on 'Small Bump' demonstrate his firm grasp on today's youth. He daren't say it aloud, but judging from +, we suspect Ed isn't as keen to retreat to his mate's fold-out as he lets on.

Watch the 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You' music video below: