Music
21 Apr 23

Ed Sheeran's new single 'Boat' is "a metaphor for depression"

Ed Sheeran 'Boat' - Screenshot

Sheeran recently announced that he has begun work on his posthumous album, which will be released following his death. Until then, new songs will be added to the album from time to time.

Ahead of his upcoming - "Subtract" album, UK singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran released his new single 'Boat'. The album‘s opening track is accompanied by a stunning music video directed by Mia Barnes. In the video, Sheeran can be seen standing in the water on a seashore with waves washing over him.

The highly anticipated "Subtract" album is due for release on May 5th via Asylum/Atlantic. In the fourteen tracks, which Sheeran wrote together with Aaron Dessner (The National), he sings about the events that have strongly influenced him in the past year.

As a result, 'Boat' is "a metaphor for depression [and] a track that combats the struggles of feeling very low and not knowing how to break the cycle," it says in press materials. The track was also the first Sheeran panned for the record.

Watch Ed Sheeran's new 'Boat' music video below:

As - (Subtract) is considered one of Sheeran's most personal works, the singer explained: "I had been working on 'Subtract' for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album, writing and recording hundreds of songs with a clear vision of what I thought it should be. Then at the start of 2022, a series of events changed my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I viewed music and art."

"Writing songs is my therapy. It helps me make sense of my feelings. I wrote without thought of what the songs would be, I just wrote whatever tumbled out. And in just over a week, I replaced a decade’s worth of work with my deepest darkest thoughts," he said, when he first announced the record.

Previously, a four-part documentary called Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All was announced to release on Disney+ on May 3, 2023. The series includes numerous previously unseen videos from Sheeran's personal archive, as well as interviews and performances. It further delves into how his personal experiences shaped him into the artist he is today.