I am so confused about this Ed Sheeran guy, I have never really listened to his music but I know he is very big these days, he is a big part of what we call mainstream music, selling millions of albums and selling out big places at a very young age… yes, but I am rarely interested by mainstream music, I am with Julian Casablancas on his ‘nothing mainstream is relevant’ that he tweeted a few months ago. And I don’t believe it was jealousy of his part because he was very much part of the mainstream with the Strokes.
So what about Sheeran? When I turn to music veterans I am even more confused… Morrissey can’t stand him just like a few others (such as Sam Smith) whom he considers ‘to be the absolute nadir in music’, … ‘things can’t possibly get any worse’, he declared to Boulder Weekly. He regards Sheeran as one of these ‘marketed pop stars’ and I would tend to agree with him, even though I have never given an honest try to Ed. So why is Keith Richards at the opposite spectrum of the Sheeran appreciation/depreciation community? Keiths loves Ed Sheeran, who even opened for the Stones at one point, and he reiterated his love for the young guy in a recent interview with the Quietus when he was asked about contemporary guitarists he likes:
‘These days? You know what? Ed Sheeran is really interesting to me… Yeah, yeah. Lovely guitar and he’s a one-man band at the moment but he has the potential. And James Bay. They’re the two that come to mind immediately.” ’60s and ’70s legends seem to just love the shit out of Ed Sheeran; you should hear Elton John talk about him on his Beats 1 Radio show.’
Really? Elton John too? How come people of the caliber of Richards, John and Morrissey can be so divided on Ed Sheeran’s talent?I know that BBC radio station 1Xtra put him at the top of its black and urban music power list, a complete joke, but should I go with Keith on this one? Keith, who has recently slammed everybody in the music business from rap in general to the Beatles and the Grateful Dead?
So I had to listen to a bit of Ed Sheeran, I went to Spotify and listened to his most successful songs, and honestly I was not very impressed, he sounds like a mix of John Mayer and Jack Johnson with a younger voice and a lot of tattoos. It’s not awful but it’s damn boring, oh and he had a song on Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’ album, targeting very successfully the same demographic than our pop princess, the age class that can’t stay for the encore because they have a curfew or have come with mum who wants to beat the traffic on her way home. But Keith Richards? I don’t get it, is it PR non-sense or is he a really a17 year-old girl at heart? Sheeran’s songs are always plain and predictable, with the brand of emotional vocals, which sound almost insincere to me, or at best tamed and blank.
I can’t find a good reason to dislike Ed Sheeran, some people even find him amazing, his music is just… meh to me, not awful but just above average…. It’s weird to live in a world where Keith Richards can’t stop raving about some average guy’s music, and where McCartney kisses famous hip hop stars’ derrieres, but thanks for veganism, we will always have Morrissey.