Ed Sheeran releases new single Eyes Closed

completemusicupdate.com:

Ed Sheeran has released his latest single ‘Eyes Closed’ along with its official music video, which serves as a metaphor for the themes of loss and grief contained in the song’s lyrics.Directed by Mia Barnes, the video shows Sheeran being followed by a blue monster, symbolising grief, which grows bigger and bigger as the song progresses.Originally written several years ago as a break up song, the track took on new meaning following the death of two of Sheeran’s friends – SBTV founder Jamal Edwards in February last year, and cricketer Shane Warne a month later.“This song is about losing someone, feeling like every time you go out and you expect to just bump into them, and everything just reminds you of them and the things you did together”, says Sheeran. “You sorta have to take yourself out of reality sometimes to numb the pain of loss, but certain things just bring you right back into it”.On the video, he adds: “When I was thinking of concepts for the ‘Eyes Closed’ music video, I wanted to make a video inspired by movies like [1950 film] ‘Harvey’, where the main character has an imaginary friend who’s a giant rabbit that no one can see”.“There’s also a book I read my daughters where sadness is encapsulated by an imaginary creature”, he continues. “Often sadness is something that follows you around, engulfing the rooms you’re in, and you can feel and see it, but no one else around you can.

So I decided to create my own big blue monster for the video. He gets bigger and bigger as the video goes on, til he takes up whole rooms and is all I can see, just like sadness”.The song is taken from Sheeran’s new Aaron Dessner-produced album ‘-’, which is set for release on 5 May.