![]() Heavy synth production is not only unsuited to Sheeran’s musical aesthetic it is also not what people recognise and listen to him for. ![]() It’s as though Sheeran heard last year’s excellent Róisín Machine (or, as Alexis Petridis suspected in his review for the Guardian, The Weeknd’s After Hours) and has intended to blindly copy it, rather than sophisticatedly apply it to what he does. But for the most part the song sounds, production-wise, like a budget Róisín Murphy. I am particularly keen on the song’s opening refrain, with an atmosphere partially reminiscent of The Cure‘s ‘Lullaby’, and Sheeran’s “hoo-ooh, hoo-oooooh” vocal hook running over the top. The lyrics feel equally generic and perfunctory, with no clear relevance to his real-life experiences.ĭon’t get me wrong, ‘Bad Habits’ is a fine pop song. Not only is ‘Bad Habits’ heavily synth-based to the point of ostracising Sheeran’s acoustic guitar – his unique selling point and most distinctive feature – but when I first heard it, Sheeran’s voice seemed unrecognisable. I could see this working if Sheeran was to take inspiration from, say, Robert Fripp or Tin Machine, but not Daft Punk. ![]() This in itself is fine and admirable as a way of avoiding stale artistic complacency, but only truly works when the finished product, while being different and surprising, still sounds recognisably like the artist in question. So I wanted to go in the studio and make something that was totally different.” “People see me as the acoustic singer-songwriter who does ballads and there was just a lot of that. The main headline here is that Ed Sheeran has attempted to reinvent himself – “I always aim to push myself and my music in new directions and hopefully you’ll hear that on the new single,” he said while promoting the single. ‘Bad Habits’ leaves me with mixed views – mainly because it doesn’t sound a lot like the Ed Sheeran we know and love at all. But on top of all this, he is working on the follow-up to 2017’s internationally successful, if overplayed, Divide album, as teased with the arrival of this new song, entitled ‘Bad Habits’. I thought he would be too busy spending time with his family and managing other artists such as Maisie Peters on his Gingerbread record label. The announcement of a new Ed Sheeran single took me somewhat by surprise. Should I praise this single for its understanding of mainstream pop consumers' tastes, or condemn it for its inoffensive conformity (and lack of philosophical stimulation)?
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