Ed Sheeran releases most personal album after winning Marvin Gaye copyright case

Ed Sheeran must’ve been quite confident that the jury would vote in his favour in the copyright case he won on 4 May, because he had promised to quit music if he lost.

The pop star has just released a new album titled Subtract, this after the court’s verdict.

“I had been working on Subtract for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album, writing and recording hundreds of songs with a clear vision of what I thought it should be.

“Then at the start of 2022, a series of events changed my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I viewed music and art,” the UK artist said in a statement.

Adult taking its toll on Ed Sheeran

The series of events Sheeran speaks of include his wife, Cherry Seaborn, having a tumour while pregnant with their child, losing one of his closest friends to death and of course the lawsuit alleging his 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud violated the copyright for Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic, Let’s Get It On.

Gaye wrote the classic sensual ditty together with songwriter Ed Townsend. Heirs of the latter are the ones who originally filed the lawsuit against Sheeran.

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In true American style, a randomly selected jury from New York decided the fate of Sheeran’s career. Speaking outside of court following the verdict, the singer said he was “very happy” to have won his case and that he did “not have to retire from [his] day job after all”.

A therapeutic process

“Writing songs is my therapy,” Sheeran said in his statement. “It helps me make sense of my feelings. I wrote without thought of what the songs would be, I just wrote whatever tumbled out. And in just over a week, I replaced a decade’s worth of work with my deepest darkest thoughts.”

The global sensation’s fans will be listening to every lyric with great attentiveness in the acoustic 18 track album as this is his most personal project as an adult, who’s gone through some harsh adulating in the last few years.

“As an artist, I didn’t feel like I could credibly put a body of work into the world that didn’t accurately represent where I am and how I need to express myself at this point in my life. This album is purely that.

“It’s opening the trapdoor into my soul. For the first time I’m not trying to craft an album people will like, I’m merely putting something out that’s honest and true to where I am in my adult life,” the 32-year-old said.

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