Ed Sheeran is ready to rewrite the rules, his own, mostly. After a streak of melancholic introspection and quiet reinvention, the global pop icon is ready to step out of the grayscale and into technicolor with his newly announced eighth studio album Play, out September 12 via Gingerbread Records/Atlantic.
To mark the album reveal, Ed Sheeran dropped “Old Phone,” a hazy, heart-tugging track co-produced with Ilya Salmanzadeh and Blake Slatkin. It follows the earlier release of “Azizam,” a dreamy lead single laced with Persian influences. Keeping the nostalgia alive, he also launched @TeddysOldPhone on Instagram—an old-school photo dump straight from his camera roll.
While Sheeran’s discography often traces a clean arc of love, loss, and lyrical vulnerability, Play tosses the rulebook, favoring intuition over introspection and beautiful chaos over control. The latest single “Old Phone” captures that tonal pivot so impeccably: it’s raw, lo-fi nostalgia coated in a glossy sheen, as if he’s sifting through his past with both wonder and weariness.
But this isn’t just sonic mood play, it’s a full blown role reversal. The polished pop heavyweight hands the mic to the wide-eyed explorer, channeling the textures of India and Persia, into a sound that feels borderless and alive. “Azizam” (Persian for “my dear”), which now has a version featuring Iranian singer Googoosh, and the upcoming album, is stitched together with global fragments: sweaty pub jams, rooftop bus gigs, and impromptu cowboy-hat karaoke sessions.
“Play was an album that was made as a direct response to the darkest period of my life,” Sheeran shares. “[And] coming out of all of that, I just wanted to create joy and technicolor, and explore cultures in the countries I was touring.” The record, created across continents and closed out in Goa, India, pulses with freedom. “It’s a real rollercoaster of emotions from start to finish. It encapsulates everything that I love about music, and the fun in it, but also where I am in life as a human, a partner, a father,” says Ed.
His new motto? Fun, or forget it. “Going into this album campaign, I said to myself: “I just want everything I do to be fun and playful”,” says Ed Sheeran. “That’s why we’re building pubs for folk jams, doing gigs on open-top buses, and singing in pink cowboy hats on bars. The older I get, the more I just want to enjoy things, and savor the moments that are mad and chaotic.”
And Play is exactly that: a vibrant detour from predictability, a record that dances with disorder and ditches the blueprint. With song titles like “Symmetry,” “A Little More,” and “The Vow,” the album promises an eclectic mix of tender confessions and offbeat musings. It’s still Ed Sheeran, just looser, louder, and letting the world take the lead.
Below is the full tracklist for Play:
- “Opening”
- “Sapphire”
- “Azizam”
- “Old Phone”
- “Symmetry”
- “Camera”
- “In Other Words”
- “A Little More”
- “Slowly”
- “Don’t Look Down”
- “The Vow”
- “For Always”
- “Heaven”
Pre-add/save Play now and stream ‘Old Phone’ on all platforms — don’t miss the most playful Sheeran era yet!
Curious about what inspired this shift in direction? Got thoughts about the upcoming EP or ‘Azizam’? We’re listening. Tag us on X @CelebMix and spill your take!