It’s been just four months since Ed Sheeran unveiled his sixth studio album Subtract in May, but he’s not done yet.
On Thursday (Aug. 24), the superstar revealed that he will be releasing another album, the Aaron Dessner-produced Autumn Variations, via his own Gingerbread Man Records on September 29. The album will come one week after the North American leg of his Mathematics World Tour wraps at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles on September 23.
“Last autumn, I found that my friends and I were going through so many life changes. After the heat of the summer, everything either calmed, settled, fell apart, came to a head or imploded,” Sheeran explained. “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, and 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. There were highs of falling in love and new friendships among lows of heartbreak, depression, loneliness and confusion.”
Sheeran went on to note that his father and brother introduced him to a composer named Elgar and his Enigma Variations album, which featured 14 compositions inspired by a different friend. “This is what inspired me to make this album,” he shared. “When I recorded Subtract with Aaron Dessner, 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.”
Autumn Variations follows Sheeran’s Subtract, which debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart upon its release earlier this year. The album also launches at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart, with Sheeran’s largest sales week since 2017.
