Ed Sheeran has been telling us that “autumn is coming” for weeks now, but we finally know when it’ll arrive.
Ed’s new album Autumn Variations, produced by The National‘s Aaron Dessner, will be out September 29. This confirms what fans have believed all along based on the clues about the album’s title and release date. The album is being released on his own label, Gingerbread Man Records.
In a length statement, Ed explains, “Last autumn…I found that my friends and I were going through so many life changes … when I went through a difficult time at the start of last year, writing songs helped me understand my feelings and come to terms with what was going on.”
“When I learned about my friend’s different situations, I wrote songs, some from their perspectives, some from mine, to capture how they and I viewed the world at that time,” he adds. “There were highs of falling in love and new friendships among lows of heartbreak, depression, loneliness and confusion.”
Ed explains that he took inspiration from the composer Edward Elgar‘s Enigma Variations, made up of 14 different variations on a single theme, each inspired by a different friend.
As for Dessner’s involvement, Ed says, “When I recorded Subtract with [him], we clicked immediately. We wrote and recorded non-stop and this album was born out of that partnership. I feel he has captured the feeling of autumn so wonderfully in his sonics and I hope everyone loves it as much as I do.”
The album will be released just days after Ed wraps up his Mathematics world tour in Los Angeles on September 23.
Here’s the track list for Autumn Variations:
“Magical”
“England”
“Amazing”
“Plastic Bag”
“Blue”
“American Town”
“That’s On Me”
“Page”
“Midnight”
“Spring”
“Punchline”
“When Will I Be Alright”
“The Day I Was Born”
“Head > Heels”
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