Ed Sheeran Takes on Death and Depression, Unflinchingly, in the Surprising ‘-‘: Album Review

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Well, that was the weirdest “album setup promo” week ever. Which is a cheeky way of saying that Ed Sheeran has gotten the amount of press that any artist could only dream of in the days leading up to a new release, albeit not for the project itself, but as the defendant in a copyright infringement trial that, after eight years after a lawsuit was first filed, coincidentally ended on the day before the release of his new record.

In an instance of weird serendipity, the case did what a record company would hope any album-launch campaign would: it put the artist not just in the headlines but made him seem infinitely more likeable, given how much of the public was rooting for him to prevail, even people that never thought they liked Ed Sheeran.

So it should be feel like a victorious moment, right? Except that the new album in question, “-“ (which we will further render as “Subtract” for clarity purposes), is not the kind of album that lends itself to big grins and flashing the “V” sign.

Quite the opposite: it’s as sharp a left turn into themes of death and depression as any pop superstar has ever made. The album is unflinching, in that regard, without any of the sops to “here’s a token banger for the radio” that you might expect from anyone with such a downtrodden collection to sell.