Ed Sheeran x 'Autumn Variations' appreciation post.

Ed Sheeran has just released his brand new album titled 'Autumn Variations' today - which arrives accompanied by a live performance video of the album track, 'American Town'.

To mark the release, we are celebrating... 

#1. This new album follows up his record 'Subtract' (which was released on May 5th) and is also produced by The National's Aaron Dessner. 

“Last autumn, I found that my friends and I were going through so many life changes. After the heat of the summer, everything either calmed, settled, fell apart, came to a head or imploded.”

“When I went through a difficult time at the start of last year, writing songs helped me understand my feelings and come to terms with what was going on, and when I learned about my friend’s different situations, I wrote songs, some from their perspectives, some from mine, to capture how they and I viewed the world at that time. There were highs of falling in love and new friendships among lows of heartbreak, depression, loneliness and confusion.”

“My dad and brother told me about a composer called Elgar, who composed ‘Enigma Variations’, where each of the 14 compositions were about a different one of his friends. This is what inspired me to make this album. When I recorded Subtract with Aaron Dessner, we clicked immediately. We wrote and recorded non-stop and this album was born out of that partnership. I feel he has captured the feeling of autumn so wonderfully in his sonics and I hope everyone loves it as much as I do.”

#2. He has performed some of the tracks live at Amazon Music Live - including 'American Town', 'Magical' and 'Blue'. Watch the performance below:

#3. Sheeran made a very re-watchable album trailer of sorts which is a must-watch before you hit play on the record...

#4. There is heaps of merchandise and vinyl variations available for the album - head here if you want to grab some for yourself. 

#5. Sheeran visited a Starbucks in Seattle to launch the Pumpkin Spice Latte for as promotion for the album - watch a little vlog about the experience below...

Ed Sheeran's 'Autumn Variations' is out now - listen below: