Maps of Music

= (Equals) (2021)

Where the lyrics of = (Equals) take you, and where it was really made.

Sheeran began this album in Los Angeles in June 2017 and only finished it in July 2021, four years later.

Key places

Los Angeles, where the album was started (2021)

Recording site Los Angeles — Sheeran started the album in June 2017 in Los Angeles and finished it in July 2021. The point is placed at city level. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• = (Equals): fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran
• Released 29 October 2021 through Asylum and Atlantic Records
• Five singles: Bad Habits, Shivers, Overpass Graffiti, The Joker and the Queen, 2step
• Visiting Hours released as a promotional single
• Album reached number one in fifteen countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States

Background

• 18 August 2021: Sheeran said a big announcement would follow the next day
• 19 August 2021: announced the album and its 29 October release date on social media
• Described it as his coming-of-age record
• Called it a really personal record, citing changes in his life: marriage, the birth of his daughter, and experienced losses
• Visiting Hours released alongside the announcement

Recording

• Started June 2017 in Los Angeles
• Finished July 2021

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Edward Christopher Sheeran was born on 17 February 1991 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk.
• He began writing songs around the age of eleven and learned guitar at that age.
• He studied at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford before leaving to support Just Jack.
• He released the EP No.5 Collaborations Project independently in January 2011 and signed with Asylum Records the same year.

Career

• His debut album + (2011) topped the UK Albums Chart and featured the hit "The A Team".
• × (2014) won the Brit Award for British Album of the Year and was the second-best-selling album worldwide of 2015.
• ÷ (2017) became the best-selling album worldwide of 2017, and he was named Global Recording Artist of the Year by the IFPI.
• He has sold 200 million records worldwide and has won four Grammy Awards.
• He founded the label Gingerbread Man Records and released albums including = (2021), − (2023) and Play (2025).

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Clash: Robin Murray rated the album 6 out of 10 and said it thrives on a series of dichotomies
• AllMusic: Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that Sheeran's melodies are soft yet insistent and that the album shows he has grown up
• Evening Standard: David Smyth wrote that a few quiet songs and lyrics about staying home with his wife and daughter do not make it a lockdown record
• Critics gave generally mixed reviews, appreciating Sheeran's emerging sonic experimentation while criticising the production

Reappraisal

• Metacritic: weighted average score of 59 out of 100 from 13 reviews, indicating mixed or average reviews
• Audience reception was positive, with a 92% like ratio on Google

Records

• UK debut at number one, selling 139,000 units in its first week, more than the rest of the week's Top 30 combined
• Third biggest opening week for an album in the UK in 2021
• Second fastest selling album of 2021 in the UK, behind Adele's 30
• Second best-selling album of 2021 in the UK with 432,000 sales
• Billboard 200 debut at number one, Sheeran's fourth chart-topping album in the United States
• US opening week of 118,000 album-equivalent units, of which 68,000 were pure sales

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Bad Habits and Shivers both reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
• Overpass Graffiti: Sheeran performed the song for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series on 26 October, three days before the album release
• Visiting Hours reached number five on the UK Singles Chart as the promotional single
• Reviewers noted lyrics about his wife Cherry and their one-year-old daughter Lyra
• Worldwide sales reached 1.3 million copies in 2021, the fifth best-selling album of that year

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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