Ed Sheeran doesn’t want rose-colored glasses, he just wants to see the sunshine. On Friday, the musician dropped the video for his track “Curtains” as he celebrated the release of his new album, Subtract.
“Can you pull the curtains? Let me see the sun shine/I think I’m done with my hiding place,” he sings in the electric guitar-backed song. “And you found me anyway/It’s been forever but I’m feeling alright.”
The visual follows Sheeran walking through a crowd of people walking aimlessly in what seems to be a fever dream. The visual switches from a dark, blue backdrop before turning to a warm, yellow as he sings about “tomorrow being another day.”
The video ends with Sheeran walking through a colorful field as he finally dons a smile on his face.
The optimistic lyrics are fitting for Sheeran this week. Along with celebrating Subtract, he was also found not guilty in a headline-making copyright trial for his song “Thinking Out Loud” Thursday.
After three hours of deliberations that followed a two-week trial in New York, the jury announced their verdict in favor of Sheeran, finding that he independently created his 2014 single and did not copy Gaye’s hit.
“These chords are common building blocks which were used to create music long before ‘Let’s Get It On’ was written, and will be used to make music long after we’re gone,” Sheeran said in his statement at the time. “They are in a songwriter’s alphabet, our toolkit, and should be there for all of us to use. No one owns them or the way they are played, in the same way nobody owns the color blue.”
As for his new album, a Rolling Stone review celebrated the singer’s focus on his greatest asset: His songwriting. “Sheeran’s lyricism returns to the spotlight, bolstered by finely detailed music that complements his crystalline lyrics and close-confidant delivery,” the review reads, praising the project’s “exposed-nerve feel.”
The 14-track LP features songs such as “Sycamore,” “Eyes Closed,” “Boat,” and “The Hills of Aberfeldy,” which closes the album with a 10-year-old song.