You’ve got to hand it to him; what was once a name known only to hipsters in Camden is now world-famous. Whether you know him as your Monday morning motivation music or as a cringey, gingey sellout, Sheeran needs no introduction. But, for artists like Sheeran who make it big-time, the first album is always the most interesting. The rawest, plainest indicator of the style and talent that carries them through their career. 

‘+’ is Sheeran’s first LP, beginning a naming convention that is so stupidly simple that it’s a wonder it was not done sooner. Despite the title of this post, there is very little happiness in the music. However, as the album name suggests, even the omnipotent minor key possesses a looming positivity. Darting between the suffering of those forced into prostitution through poverty in a lullaby so sweet ‘When the Sun Goes Down’s’ protagonist breaks into sobs, and a tender retelling of a miscarriage set to a muted heartbeat, ‘+’ was created and played on nothing more than an acoustic guitar (and a piano, and a few other instruments too). 

Although Sheeran was very well established among his peers and fans, playing 300 shows in 2009 alone, ‘+’ was not released until 2011. The then 20-year-old cited Eminem and Damien Rice as two musical inspirations, which are both glaringly evident when you listen to the album. This was still the era where a white rapper was acceptable and a good white rapper was a global event. Rap, or rap-adjacent lyricism, appears on ‘+’ more so than on any of Sheeran’s subsequent albums. And it’s good. Come on, you have to admit it’s good. 

Back then, this played into his image as slightly more edgy than the average sad-sack with a six-string. The ’troubadour’ label helped him build the pedestal he currently sits on, but, oddly, almost no one would stick it on Sheeran now. This is part of what makes ‘+’ so unique. It bears an originality that has been lost in its own repetition. No one could believe that sweet and soulful voice came out of a lanky, London-bred redhead, and even fewer people could believe it was possible to get to that level of proficiency in an instrument while one remained a teenager. The combination of talent and silent charm is present throughout, and it wasn’t long before ‘A Team’, Sheeran’s first hit, started to steal hearts across the world. 

“The public has heard the stereotypical love songs a million times and they’ve heard the stereotypical life-or-death songs millions of times. It’s good to mix it up a little bit.”

Ed Sheeran, Interview Magazine (2011) 

You have to listen to ‘+’ at night, preferably alone and in your bed so that you may cry in peace. Sit through ‘A-Team’ – just because you’ve heard it a million times before doesn’t make it bad. Relax into ‘Drunk’ and stretch it out into underrated ‘U.N.I’, speak and sing every word as the delicate melancholy sets in. Now add a pinch of ‘don’t give a fuck’ for ‘Grade 8’. Cherish it, because very quickly you’ll find yourself plunging into ‘Wake Me Up’’s desolate piano. Hold onto the unconditional, humble romance – you’ll need it to get you through ‘Small Bump’’s tear-inducing beat. It’s ok though, because ‘This’ will offer you the quiet embrace you need as the rain starts to pour. We’re on the up again with ‘The City’, and then straight back down into ‘Lego House’. Get off the rollercoaster and sit with it, the second single and certain hit. And out of all these things I’ve done, I think I love you better now. Did you enjoy that? Well, you’ll love the next one. ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’, arguably the best track on ‘+’, is ready and waiting to give you a much-needed break. Next, some sweet baby-making music in the form of ‘Kiss Me’. Did you think it was going to end on a high note? You’re wrong. ‘Give Me Love’ closes, the call into the void, the lament for the human heart, the kicker, the killer, the saddest fucking song ever written. And all that’s left is your tears. Keep listening. 

With this closing spiel, I mean not to imply that art made with the expectation of financial profit is in some way less valid on its being made during the artist’s stability. Actually, I mean to be explicit in that statement. 

Ed Sheeran probably knew to some extent that ‘+’ would do well, never as well as it did, but relatively well nonetheless. He’d been living off his music for years by that point. However, there is an innocence in these chords that may only be produced by an artist at the beginning of something, an artist filled with self-confidence that is tinged by trepidation. I know I’m good, but am I good? Who knows? I’m simply going to do the best that I can.  

I’m glad Ed Sheeran has got to be as well-known as he has because if ‘A-Team’ wasn’t a hit I’d never have forced my dad into buying me this album. I’d never have spent those nights crying to images in my own imagination. I wouldn’t have had the soundtrack for my deepest desires and lofty romantic ideals. But I can lament that this great work was not left in isolation, that it was piled upon by CG ‘beats’ and whatever the fuck ‘Shape of You’ is. I can kick and scream and shout until I’m blue in the face, but ‘+’ will never simply just be an album. It will be Ed Sheeran’s debut album, locked in a very specific chapter of life for him and everyone else who cherished it. Myself included. Back then I listened to ‘+’ to hear devotion and death as I never had before, and from now on I will listen to ‘+’ in rebellion, in longing, in preservation of the superlative. In honour of a mortal happiness that Sheeran himself will never touch again.