Ed Sheeran can’t stop reminding fans: “autumn is coming.” And while it’s certainly possible that the pop superstar is just really, really passionate about the fall season, Sheerios are pretty sure that he’s actually teasing the arrival of a new project.
Let’s back up. Sheeran has been cryptically dropping the phrase “autumn is coming” for a couple weeks now, using it to caption a number of Instagram photos and videos. Funnily enough, one of the pictures was a meme of the musician standing in front of a fall landscape, with all of the leaves replaced with hundreds of pictures of him and his ginger hair.
Then, on Sunday (Aug. 13), the “Bad Habits” singer shared a montage of clips from his time in Minneapolis, where he recently broke U.S. Bank Stadium’s attendance record with his Mathematics Tour. In the caption, he wrote: “Had an absolute blast. Left some clues around the stadium about autumn coming. Did you know autumn is coming?”
While in Minneapolis, Sheeran also worked a shift at the Lego store in Mall of America, where he sang a surprise performance of his 2013 hit “Lego House.” He also passed out his own custom Lego figurine, which wears a shirt reading — you guessed it — “Autumn is coming.”
But that’s not all. Fans also noticed that at his Aug. 5 Kansas City show, Sheeran sported a jersey emblazoned with the number 9 and, in place of his last name, “Autumn.” Then, one week later, at his Minneapolis show, he wore a jersey with the number 29, this time printed with the word “Variations.”
With the potential clues in place, fans online are trying to connect the dots. “Autumn Variations?” theorized one fan on Twitter. “Autumn is coming! 9/29, 29/9 aka September 29?”
“I’m throwing this out there now that Autumn Variations is coming on September 29 based on the clues given by Ed this weekend in Minneapolis,” tweeted another fan.
If fans are correct and Ed’s unconfirmed next album does come out this fall, it’ll be his second LP to drop this year. In May, he released Subtract (stylized “–“), which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
See what Sheerios are making of Ed Sheeran’s “autumn is coming” mantra below:
