Tom: Really? Really, we’re doing this again? I know this is Tracks We Missed Week, but seriously.
Tim: Yes, yes, I know we didn’t start this blog to write about multiple Ed Sheeran tracks in less than a week, but still. One thing they don’t tell you about working in retail is just how many times a day you’ll hear Ed Sheeran, and that on occasion you may hear Shape of You (awful) immediately followed by Galway Girl (ludicrous) immediately followed by this.
Tim: And that is actually a nicely redeeming song.
Tom: Is it, though? Is it?
Tim: I don’t know if it’s just that it’s worn me down eventually (that certainly hasn’t happened with Shape of You), but musically at least it’s a heck of an uplifting song.
Tom: Well, yes, okay, the chorus is great, but everything around it is just a bit okay. I just can’t get behind romanticising teenage years like that. There’s a song that I can’t find a copy of online — Billy Jones is Dead by MJ Hibbett — that’s a bit more bittersweet, and that works a lot better for me.
Tim: You may not have time for the childhood reminiscences (I actually visited that castle on several occasions in my younger days, so maybe I’m ever so slightly biased towards it), but even so I’m fairly sure it’s hard not to be taken away by that chorus, and the music beneath everything. For all the things we might not like about him, Ed Sheeran can be a damn good songwriter; fairly sure this holds that up.
Tom: Well done to whoever did the casting for ‘Young Ed Sheeran’, though. Spot on.
Tim: Incidentally, speaking of retail and music – the most prominent Christmas song on Apple’s festive playlist? The Sheeran-penned slightly damp When Christmas Comes Around. Bizarre, but true.