Ed Sheeran Announces Next Album 'Autumn Variations' -- and It's Coming Sooner Than You Think

etonline.com:

Ed Sheeran. The 32-year-old singer-songwriter announced on Thursday the upcoming release of his new album,, on Sept. 23. Fittingly, the date coincides with the autumnal equinox.«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,» Sheeran said in a statement announcing the news. «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,» he continued. «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.»-- which will be released via Sheeran's own Gingerbread Man Records — finds the singer re-teaming with producer and close collaborator Aaron Dessner. «We wrote and recorded non-stop and this album was born out of that partnership,» Sheeran said. «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.»The full-length will drop one week after Sheeran wraps the North American leg of his.