“Shivers” by Ed Sheeran, Thursday, April 7, 2022

 

Opening with a the late '90s pop-rock-sounding "Tides," Ed Sheeran's fourth record = seems to change genres with every track. Back in October of last year, I asked the question about whether or not Ed Sheeran could successfully integrate all the musical styles he's done in the past and make a cohesive album that would appeal both broadly to all music fans and more specifically to die-hard fans. What I found today was that most of the songs individually are good. But as an album the songs don't play together save for the common themes of falling in love with his wife Cherry, the death of family members, isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic, recovery from addiction, and the birth of his daughter Lyra.  

I WANNA DRINK THAT SMILE. The eclectic mix of singles Sheeran released before the album dropped--"Bad Habits" and "Shivers" sounding similar to ÷'s singles and "Visiting Hours" recalling the more sentimental moods of X (see my post on “Photograph”)-- along with the post-release radio singles "Overpass Graffiti" and the remix of "The Joker and the Queen," a duet with Taylor Swift, are starting to seem more like a musical flex for Sheeran. Yes, we get it, Ed, you can do anything musically that you want to. Of course, the musical community questions whether it's pure talent or whether it's money or famous friends that creates the Ed Sheeran albums of today. Earlier this week, I had a conversation about Sheeran at work. My coworker, about 15 years older than me, said that he finds Ed Sheeran "derivative and boring" and then asked if there were any songs of Ed's that I liked. I told him that Sheeran had lots of much better songs than "Shape of You," such as "Photograph," "Castle on the Hill," and songs from =. My coworker only knew "Shape of You." That conversation made me think about Sheeran's music post-"Shape." I think that I really like "Shivers" and "Bad Habits," but I wonder if I would like them if I heard them every time I went past a phone store and heard them blaring? And to be fair, because of the pandemic, I've gone to town only a handful of times, so I have no idea what the phone stores are blaring now. Do I like the two new Ed Sheeran dance tracks because they aren't "Shape of You"?

YOU WANNA DANCE 'TILL THE SUNLIGHT CRACKS. When I first heard "Shivers" on AppleMusic's autoplay after listening to Jax Jones's Snacks record back in early October of last year, I immediately thought, "Ed just wrote a tango." The pizzicato strings, the 1-2 beat lends itself to living room dancing. However, apparently Sheeran claims he didn't realize that the song was a tango until he saw EastEnders star Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice choreograph a tango for a Halloween-themed episode of Strictly Come Dancing 2021, the British version of Dancing with the Stars. The dance clip from the British television show went viral, continuing to boost Sheeran's second single around the world. Nothing is subtle about "Shivers." The music video features big-budget effects rarely seen these days outside of K-pop (check out the version with Sunmi and Jessi). Sheeran channels action heroes, boy band members, and yes, Elton John in the ridiculous situations in the music video. Lyrically, the song examines the early stages of love, the magnetism two people with chemistry feel when they can't get enough of each other. Feeling that spark when you like someone and they like you back, waiting for them to text you back, the early stages when everything is a production--that's what this song is all about. The question is if we're going to hear anymore of these adolescent songs from Sheeran, or are we just going to have Nick Jonas Spaceman-style records from here on out?

Read “Shivers” by Ed Sheeran on Genius.

Official Music Video:

Official Lyric Video:

The Voice finale: 

Tango: