Over several EPs and constant touring Ed Sheeran has built up a cult following and the Yorkshire lad’s debut album, + has been hotly anticipated for some time now.
On stage he cuts an unimposing figure – his un-kept ginger hair and acoustic guitar promise nothing more than a Damien Rice wannabe.
But Ed has an edgy side. Mixing rap with folk and pop he can rapid fire lyrics as well as any wordsmith or emcee.
This is most apparent on second single, You Need Me I Don’t Need You, which combines the cockiness of youth and clever word play, to add a dash of flair to the singer-songwriter genre.
Here he excels and sets himself apart from his peers with his breackneck rap/singing verses that cut through tracks like You Need Me and U.N.I, but these innovative tracks are few and far between.
There are too many moments on + where young Ed sails perilously close to the likes of James Blunt and Paolo Nutini, and you fear he could easily fall into the sea of just another singer-songwriter doing the rounds.
The album falls down on tracks like This and Kiss Me, which are run-of-the-mill, watered down love songs, that fade quickly in the memory.
His ballads are not all second rate. A-Team is a beautifully crafted lyrical journey about a young girl who turns to prostitution and The City is a clever love letter to London.
But Ed is at his best when he finds the balance between the two. Bursting between ballad crooner to emcee in the space of one song is the formula which will separate and elevate him above artists in both genres.
Ed has the tools and talent to re-invent a genre or possibly pioneer a sub-genre. + is a solid first offering but hopefully he will follow it up with a more adventurous second attempt and not become purely Radio 2 playlist material.