How far would you go for the people you love? An age-long question answered by the likes of an Ed Sheeran fan: You buy their concert tickets for July 29, 2023 at Soldier Field, of course!
So, in honor of the Ed Sheeran concert Izzy Chew and I will be going to, I have decided to rank a few of Ed Sheeran’s songs and their impact on me.
Let’s start out with a classic.
“Perfect” – Overall: 9/10
Pacing: 7/10
Lyrics: 10/10
Melody: 10/10
Personal impact: 9/10
“Perfect” is a soapy wedding song. It shouldn’t impact me the way it does, but there’s just something about it that makes my heart melt every single time. The song feels intimate – almost like a warm hug. The greatest thing going for “Perfect” is easily the lyrics. Ed beautifully describes what it’s like to fall in love, and it’s easily visualizable. Topping off the well-written lyrics, are the slow strokes of the guitar paired with backing vocals of the keyboard which sets the mood and ties this song in the most perfect bow of a romantic song. Ed’s voice is raw and vulnerable in most of the song, and I like to think about how infatuated Ed must have been with the person he is singing about to create such an iconically romantic song. My only complaint is how slow the song is, since the melody can get repetitive, but it’s literally a wedding song so I am going to give it some leeway. Overall, it is my go to romance song, and I thank Ed every single day for having created this masterpiece.
“Shape of You” – Overall: 1/10
Pacing: 2/10
Lyrics: 0/10
Melody: 1/10
Personal impact: 2/10
“Shape of You” reminds me of that one song with the Chainsmokers where they sing about the rover and the tattoo on the shoulder. Every time I hear the quintessential introduction of the xylophones, I want to rip my ears off my face. I will go as far as to say this is the worst song I have ever heard. My main memory of this song is running the pacers to the remixed, instrumental version of this song in middle school. It was not my fondest moment. Not even just that, I genuinely want to know what Ed was thinking when he wrote these lyrics:
“One week in we let the story begin
We’re going out on our first date
You and me are thrifty, so go all you can eat
Fill up your bag and I fill up a plate”
– Ed Sheeran, “Shape of You,” Divide
They are the most horrendous cringey lyrics I have ever heard to date. No one was asking for this content. His whole persona is to be this hopeless romantic, and while I am all for him diversifying his style of music, this was not it. I have never had a positive experience while listening to this song, except for the one time Joji started playing it at his concert. That is the main reason why this song gets a 2/10 rather than a zero
“Shivers” – Overall: 8/10
Pacing: 10/10
Lyrics: 6/10
Melody: 10/10
Personal impact: 8/10
I am embarrassed to admit just how much I like this song. It vaguely reminds me of “Shape of You”, but I think Ed genuinely redeemed himself with “Shivers”. Where “Shape of You ” scored low in my categories of lyrics, pacing, melody, and positive personal impact, “Shivers” delivered on all of them. The intro to “Shivers” is immaculate. There’s a heavy beat with what sounds like violin plucking that can be heard consistently throughout the song, setting the overall pace. The lyrics t
hemselves are mediocre, but melody and the bridge are what makes this song as great as it is. Ed Sheeran has to watch himself, releasing a song as aggravatingly catchy as this.
Hello Ashley, this is such a creative blog post! I love how you ranked some of Ed Sheerans songs based on your prediction if he will perform them at his concert. I agree, I used to love the song “Perfect” in middle school. “Perfect” made me feel happy and loved at the same time. I think every tween girl had a phase of loving the song “perfect”…maybe there is something perfect about it! The way he writes his songs resembles a story–so descriptive and imaginable. Because of this, I felt it made me more engaged as I was listening to a song and a story at the same time. I don’t know about you, but I would love to see how his wife reacted to “perfect” after hearing it for the first time. “Shape of you” was catchy in middle school, but now it is annoying so I agree with your 1/10. Wow, I haven’t noticed how weird some of those lyrics are…”You and me are thrifty, so go all you can eat”. I can see how it is catchy, but it definitely is different in my opinion. OMG I also love Joji, what is your favorite song from him? I don’t recall hearing the song “shivers”when I had my Ed Sheeran phase , so I am not one to judge…maybe I wasn’t a true Ed Sheeran fan.
Ashley, as you know, I also became an accidental fan of Ed Sheeran. I am very excited for our concert. Starting off with your review of Perfect, I agree that it is such a beautiful song, and the epitome of romance. I decided to listen to it while reading your blog post, and I can almost hear us yelling the lyrics to it. Although the picture you attached of Ed Sheeran scares me a little bit, I can tell how much you value the song and the warm feelings from it. I hope I have an Ed Sheeran’s Perfect love in the future. Additionally, I also felt slightly repulsed by Shape of You. Like you said, Ed Sheeran has branded himself as a “hopeless romantic,” and that song did not feel very romantic to me. This song had been very popular when released, and I never enjoyed hearing it. I was surprised to see Shivers rated so highly, and I am ashamed to admit that I have not given it a listen yet. You seem to think very highly of this song, so I will definitely give it a listen.
I’m going to be honest with you Ashley. I don’t think I’ve ever willingly listened to an Ed Sheeran song, much less spent money to see him in all his red-haired glory live. That being said, I completely agree with your ratings. I think Perfect was the only Ed Sheeran song where I didn’t change the radio station when it came on. It is a very pretty ballad with a sweet message, and I agree that the vulnerability in his voice is showcased well. I had to search up Shivers to remember what it sounds like, and what I got is that you should really add a music video category to your rating. All I remember was that he was hanging off a moving train after drinking tea. That’s about as far as I got, but I think it deserves an award for creativity. It’s also a really catchy song, and I think it was stuck in my head a few days ago without knowing the name. Shape of You is probably the worst song I have ever heard. The lyrics are shallow and objectifying, the tune is catchy in the worst way possible, and this song was so overplayed in general. There had to have been 50 remixes and 500 videos of people playing the intro on various instruments. I hope you get to decorate shirts again for the Ed Sheeran concert – tell me how it goes!