no.6 collaborations project — Home

Two years after his critically acclaimed and commercially successful album Divide (÷), Ed Sheeran returns to the new music listings with a highly collaborative album, which seems to have been in development for quite some time. After what was to me a complete flop in DJ Khaled’s recent album Father Of Asahd, I was very hesitant in hoping for anything better than average from this Sheeran project. While it’s far from perfect, this album did more of what Khaled set out to do than he was able to, and I can see quite a few of these tracks getting lots of radio play and social media praise.

What makes collaborative albums so difficult for many artists is managing the cohesiveness of the entire project despite showcasing so many featured artists ranging in genre, mood, and sound. Referencing the fact that this is a collaborative project in the album’s title was a smart move, in my opinion, because there is very little sonic similarity from track to track. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but instead of being one continuous project, it can come off as a bit of choppy at times. The order of the track listing also doesn’t make sense at times, either, like the sudden transition from “Take Me Back to London” which is a rap banger featuring a hard-hitting Stormzy, to a heart-felt ballad in “Best Part of Me” featuring YEBBA. The sudden changes in mood could’ve been avoided by pairing more similar tracks together throughout; a simple change that could’ve really improved the assembly of this project instead of sounding as shuffled as it does.

This album is very lyrically generic and radio-friendly, and again that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but also isn’t ideal to me. Many of the tracks will get the plays and streams needed to perpetuate a pop-genre that is becoming more and more polished and less and less experimental in nature. It even at times feel like some of the songs on this project were generated by an AI which listened to every popular radio-hit in recent memory and was told to make songs of its own. I’m looking at you, “I Don’t Care" (with Justin Bieber) - not the highlight of the project to me.

Some of the project’s highlights that make it above-par to me are certain features that stand out above the rest. Khalid, Camilla Cabello, Travis Scott, and H.E.R don’t seem out of place like some of the other features do, but instead play off of Ed Sheeran very well. Sheeran’s ability to step out of his comfort zone and embrace a more rap-influenced style, even spitting the occasional halfway-decent bars throughout this project, is impressive and commendable considering that he could’ve easily played it much safer here. “Antisocial” is the biggest gem from this project to me, but that may just be because of how much I enjoy Travis Scott’s presence on any track. The song’s eclectic music video also reassures that neither Sheeran nor his collaborators took anything too seriously when creating this project, which is probably a good thing.

Overall, I find this album to be an enjoyable collection of radio-friendly summer tracks. There are questionable moments throughout, but enough positive counterbalance to call this a successful project from Sheeran. I’m interested to see if working with artists from genres other than his own will have any influence on his solo work moving forward - we will see. What did you think of this project?

SCORE: 5/10