New project drops this fall
Ed Sheeran has announced Autumn Variations, his second album of 2023, will be released on September 29th via Atlantic Records. The project will be produced by Aaron Dessner, who also produced Subtract, which was released in May 2023.
“Last autumn, I found that my friends and I were going through so many life changes. After the heat of the summer, everything either calmed, settled, fell apart, came to a head or imploded. When I went through a difficult time at the start of last year, writing songs helped me understand my feelings and come to terms with what was going on, and when I learned about my friend’s different situations, I wrote songs, some from their perspectives, some from mine, to capture how they and I viewed the world at that time. There were highs of falling in love and new friendships among lows of heartbreak, depression, loneliness and confusion,” he says on social media.
“My dad and brother told me about a composer called Elgar, who composed ‘Enigma Variations,’ where each of the 14 compositions were about a different one of his friends. This is what inspired me to make this album. When I recorded Subtract with Aaron Dessner, we clicked immediately. We wrote and recorded non-stop and this album was born out of that partnership. I feel he has captured the feeling of autumn so wonderfully in his sonics and I hope everyone loves it as much as I do.”
The 14 song album will be available on CD, LP, and several limited edition vinyl variations, including a harvest orange vinyl and limited edition first pressing white vinyl. A Sticker Sheet Vinyl will be released with an exclusive design and blank outer sleeve to allow fans to create their own cover collage with two enclosed sticker sheets.
Autumn Variations drops one week after his Mathematics Tour wraps in Los Angeles.
1. Magical
2. England
3. Amazing
4. Plastic Bag
5. Blue
6. American Town
7. That’s on Me
8. Page
9. Midnight
10. Spring
11. Punchline
12. When Will I Be Alright
13. The Day I Was Born
14. Head > Heels
