Ed Sheeran has shared new song ‘Eyes Closed’.
The songwriter has been through the mill, recently discussing his experiences with Rolling Stone. The loss of close friend Jamal Edwards hit him hard, while his wife’s experiences with cancer took their toll on a mental and emotional level.
New album ‘-‘ deals with this, and it hits home on May 5th. New single ‘Eyes Closed’ is out now, and it deals explicitly with grief, and the aftermath of their own. “I lost more than my friend,” he sings, with the lyric attempting to trace a path forwards.
It doesn’t make a full break with the past – ‘Eyes Closed’ feels resolutely like an Ed Sheeran song, with its melodic inflections and commitment to directness – but it markedly more open, and autobiographical than much of his output.
Ed Sheeran comments…
“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. 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.”
The video features Ed Sheeran walking from bar to bar, from takeaway shop to an empty harbour, followed by a big blue monster – the cuddly creature is a metaphor for depression. He continues:
“When I was thinking of concepts for the ‘Eyes Closed’ music video, I wanted to make a video inspired by movies like 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. 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.”
‘-‘ will be released on May 5th. Check out ‘Eyes Closed’ below.
