Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You

It feels like a numbers game more than anything to me. I mean sure, you could point out that Sia had at least a couple of singles that sounded a little bit like this last year, and they were reasonably big hits to an extent, because Sia is a proven reasonable hit maker. But Sheeran? He's one of the big guns, his take on the exact same formula will sell more because he's got a near unrivaled star power. Not that he's super famous, but he taps enough demographics that seemingly EVERYONE listens to his music to some degree. The fact that not everyone seems to realise this has inadvertedly destroyed the UK Charts, as the OCC scurried to satiate the loudest commenters on their social media.

As a chart watcher, it's a bit of a disappointing affair to see that the biggest hit of the year is pretty much decided halfway into January (you can make a case for "Despacito", but all the charts and (non-YouTube) numbers are going to point to this). It just feels like something that's been earned through being unobjectionable rather than particularly interesting or memorable.

If I were to compliment the song in one way, it's that the inclusion of a light guitar strum in the beat is a clever way to dip into the tropical trend in a way that feels organic. It did unfortunately grate on me quickly though because the song's beat pretty much doesn't change for the entire duration.

The thing that puts me off the most is the lyrics however. I don't really rate Sheeran much as a lyricist, but he often has a way with setting a scene. It's just a shame that there's often not much diversity, to the point that 'Sheeran has a hook up at a random bar' is its own category at this point. It's been beaten to death at this point but the magnet lyric is moronic, the bedsheets lyric is gross, and an obscenely wealthy man being thrifty on a date is unflattering. The main hook is a bit questionable too, what is 'I'm in love with the shape of you' but a more subtle 'I just think you're hot'? The whole experience is an undesirable look into the mind of a womaniser. I never thought I'd long for the days when "Thinking Out Loud" was his biggest hit.