Overview

• Play, Sheeran’s eighth studio album, arrived Friday on Gingerbread Man/Atlantic after being recorded across his Mathematics tour and completed in Goa, India.
• The album weaves South Asian and Persian elements, featuring Arijit Singh on Sapphire and a Farsi version of Azizam released earlier with Iranian singer Googoosh.
• Sheeran says he made the project as a response to the darkest period of his life, with songs referencing his wife Cherry’s 2022 cancer treatment, the death of Jamal Edwards, and his plagiarism court battles.
• Early reviews describe a recognisably Sheeran set that leans back into big-pop balladry with selective experiments, including a Fred Again collaboration and percussive Indian touches.
• Sheeran says Play opens a five‑album sequence he has titled Pause, Rewind, Fast‑Forward and Stop, and he plans a tour push that includes a temporary family relocation to the U.S. and an iHeartRadio Festival set in Las Vegas on September 20.