GINGER SNAPSHOT: SPOTIFY RECORDS AND SPOTTY REVIEWS
Ed Sheeran is scoring strongly on the streaming platforms—notably on Spotify, where he continues to break records for monthly users, according to reports. Indeed, he's on his way to an unprecedented 70m monthly listeners.
He's not scoring huge points with music critics, though.
Reviews of his new No. 6 Collaborations Project set have dished up some descriptions that, frankly, took us aback.
The Washington Post declares, "Ed Sheeran's new album sounds like a hostage situation." In fact, that's the headline. Chris Richards describes the featured artists as "detainees" and takes particular aim at the ginger superstar's rapping, which he deems "rhymes against humanity."
Slate's Carl Wilson argues, "Ed Sheeran's Collaborations Project Proves He Is the Tofu of Pop Music." Again, that's the title; as you can probably intuit, Wilson asserts that the Brit relies "on rappers and duet partners to provide all the flavor."
Pitchfork dubs it "an album defined mostly by banality," though like several other reviewers, the publication's Rawiya Kameir takes issue with the "raceplay" in the song "South of the Border."
Jon Caramanica of The New York Times argues that with its starry guest lists and forays into every conceivable genre, the set "smacks of dilettantism. Flashiness. It’s a neckful of gold chains for a singer who ordinarily wears none." Particular concern is expressed, again, about Sheeran's rapping.
But these are love taps compared to the screed from curmudgeonly blogger Mr. Agreeable on The Quietus. "C*** me with a f***ing cockstick, this is another piss-stain of f***ing shame on the worst f***ing century in living f***ing memory!" begins this profanity-encrusted diatribe, which we can imagine being turned into a dramatic reading.
Of course, a line on the new album expresses how the megastar feels about all such verbiage: On the song "1000 Nights," he offers a pre-emptive strike against the critics: "Don’t need to read reviews if you can’t do the things I do."
