X (Ed Sheeran album)
X (Ed Sheeran album)
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X (Ed Sheeran album)

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X (Ed Sheeran album)

x (Multiply) is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter, Ed Sheeran. It was released on 20 June 2014 in Australia and New Zealand, and worldwide on 23 June through Asylum Records and Atlantic Records. The album received positive reviews from music critics. It was an international commercial success, peaking at No. 1 in 15 countries, while topping both the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200. x also reached the top five in seven other countries and was the best selling album of 2014 in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Five singles were released from the album: "Sing", "Don't", "Thinking Out Loud", "Bloodstream" (a collaboration with Rudimental), and "Photograph".

The lead single, "Sing", became Sheeran's first UK number-one song, reached number 13 in the US and peaked inside the top 10 in several other countries. The second single, "Don't", peaked at No. 8 in the UK and number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Sheeran's first top-10 single in the US. The album's third single, "Thinking Out Loud", achieved international success, peaking at number one in 12 countries, and the top five in 12 more. It became Sheeran's second UK number-one single and has been certified 7× Platinum, with sales of over 4.2 million copies in the UK. "Thinking Out Loud" also became Sheeran's biggest hit in the US at the time, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, until he released "Shape of You", which debuted at number one. The album's fourth single, a remix of "Bloodstream", peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the fourth-consecutive single from x to hit the top 10 in Sheeran's native country. "Photograph" was released as the album's fifth and final single. It gave Sheeran his fifth consecutive top 10 single from the album in Australia and New Zealand, peaking at numbers nine and eight, respectively.

In December 2014, Spotify named x the most-streamed album in the world for 2014, racking up more than 430 million streams for the year. x has been certified 13× Platinum in the UK with sales of over 3.9 million copies, making it the third best-selling album of the 2010s and the 20th best selling album in the history of the UK. The album has been certified Diamond in Canada, 16× Platinum in New Zealand, and 5× Platinum in the US, with sales of over five million copies. It also became the first album ever to be certified Diamond in Australia. Also, x broke Adele's record for the longest charting top 10 album in the history of the United Kingdom. In 2015, x won the Brit Award for British Album of the Year, and at the 57th Grammy Awards it was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year.

The 10th anniversary edition of the album with bonus tracks was released on 21 June 2024.

Having written "hundreds" of songs, Sheeran entered the studio with Rubin and they cut that down to the 15 new songs that are feature on the album, excluding "I See Fire", which was recorded separately and saw release on the soundtrack for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Sheeran stated that he "started off making another acoustic record, and it turned into a neo-soul-funk record," due to the influence of working with producers like Rubin and Benny Blanco that "pulled [him] out of [his] comfort zone." Getting into the studio with Rubin to "rerecord all the songs" after two years of writing them made the songs sound "raw and interesting", at a time when Sheeran was getting tired of them, giving him a chance to "actually set up the album instead of just putting it out." However, doing an entire album with Rubin "just wouldn't work on pop radio", so after working with Rubin he wrote the songs, "I'm a Mess", and "Thinking Out Loud", both about his girlfriend at the time, with a different producer. Jake Gosling, who co-wrote and produced the majority of Sheeran's debut album, has no writing credits on this album, while new collaborators include Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody and British drum and bass band, Rudimental.

"One" was the first song Sheeran wrote for the album, and is "particularly quiet". Written on a guitar made out of wood from a whisky barrel in a hotel room whilst on tour in Perth in 2011, the song was the last song written about the love interest that was the focus of the previous album. "I'm a Mess" was one of the last songs written, after the recording sessions with Rubin. It is one of two songs written about his then-current girlfriend. It is described as a simple song, and was "written in the shower."

In an interview with Zane Lowe for BBC Radio 1, promoting the first single, "Sing", Sheeran talked about getting in the studio with Pharrell and him "playing [Sheeran] a lot of things, and then it stuck on this one riff," which eventually became the basis of the track. He stated he has always been a fan of R&B, but was just "trying to find the right way to make it." Sheeran expressed wishes to create an entire album with Pharrell, and "Sing" was to be a song for that project, but several musical peers, including Elton John, Taylor Swift and Pharrell himself, urged Sheeran to release it with x. Justin Timberlake's debut album, Justified, was a favourite of Sheeran's, which he consciously tried to channel for "Sing". On working with Pharrell, Sheeran told MistaJam on BBC Radio 1Xtra that they had written two other songs together that were in the style he "usually did", but for "Sing" he was pushed "out of [his] comfort zone" which made the track stand out. Pharrell reportedly said that he wanted to "shake the world's view of [Sheeran] up" and make pioneering songs that no singer/songwriter has done before rather than just "a cool record". A remix of the track has been made with Korean recording artist Psy, and the music video for the song was based on a night out with the artist.

"Don't", which is about a girlfriend who cheated on Sheeran with a close friend, has been linked to several of Sheeran's fellow singers, including Ellie Goulding and Taylor Swift, but Sheeran has said it is "100 percent not about Taylor", but that he has played her the song, and she "never want[s] to piss [him] off that much." It started off "as a riff on his phone". "Don't" was planned to be released as the first single from the album, but it was decided that the chorus, especially the line "Don't f- with my love," was not suitable for a first single. The song was recorded first with Benny Blanco, then again with Rick Rubin, and the two producers came together to produce the final cut. The song almost didn't make it onto the album, as Sheeran felt it was "a bit personal", but was urged by those who had heard the demo to release it, as it was "an alright song... so it ended up on the record."

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