Ed Sheeran, Autumn Variations review: The king of bangers is desperate to prove he's 'serious'

When you want critics and chin-strokers to like you, call Aaron Dessner. Dessner, of The National, has become the pop equivalent of an emergency button to be slammed by artists eager to boost their credibility.

That was the strategy of Taylor Swift, who won a special place in the hearts of indie dads everywhere when teaming up with Dessner for her moss-wreathed Folklore and Evermore LPs. That is likewise the course charted by Ed Sheeran, a songwriter who, for all his gazillions of streams, has historically had about as much cred as a Mr Blobby B-side.

Announced just a few weeks ago, Sheeran’s “surprise” new album, Autumn Variations, is his second of the year and his second recorded with Dessner. As with its predecessor, Subtract, it finds Sheeran embracing the role of heartfelt troubadour, with sometimes rewarding results.

The album ‘Autumn’ can be seen as a companion piece to ‘Subtract’

It is also a departure from the crowd-pleasing hits that have turned him into a once-in-a-generation sensation. He does that weird “rapping Ed thing” just once (thankfully). The big Technicolor choruses that defined smashes such as “Sing” and “Shape of You” are likewise absent.

Autumn Variations lacks the thematic coherence of Subtract. That project was composed by Sheeran in shock following the sudden death of his friend Jamal Edwards. Instead, the singer draws inspiration from the experiences of close acquaintances going through significant life changes in the autumn of 2022, when he wrote much of the material.

Hopefully, he’s okayed the lyrics with his pals. The stories told are bleak, raw and often specific in their details. On the strumming “Amazing”, Sheeran sings that he “flew to Paris to try to get away” from a personal crisis. Meanwhile, on “Plastic Bag”, he paints a grim picture of a young man who takes a “job to please his dad”.

Subtract sometimes suffered for trying too hard. Sheeran was, by the looks of it, so desperate to make his “serious” album that he sucked all the fun out. On Autumn Variations, he’s more relaxed. The format is still “Ed Unplugged”, but he delivers a lovely Bon Iver-style falsetto on “Blue”. “That’s On Me” meanwhile builds to an uplifting chorus of “I know this will be alright”. It’s lovely: the pop equivalent of clouds parting to let the sunshine through.

Having sold out Wembley more often than most of us have been to the cinema, Sheeran is a superstar beyond compare. So it is strange that he apparently feels the need to prove his authenticity with a “songwriter’s record” such as this.

He’s fantastic at big pop anthems – a talent just as valid as sounding like a millennial Jeff Buckley, which is what he and Dessner shoot for here. But the Sheeran sceptics will not be won over: these new songs are generally in same mopey acoustic register that he established with “The A-Team” 12 years ago.

The smartest way to approach Autumn Variations is as an unexpected bonus. Much like the dynamic between Swift’s Folklore and the frothier Evermore, it is best appreciated as a looser companion to Subtract.

It’s a perfectly agreeable seasonal treat from an artist for whom time off seems alien. But ardent Ed-heads may wonder when he’ll get around to writing those irresistible anthems again.

Stream: Plastic Bag, That’s On Me