In his Rolling Stone cover story from this April, Ed Sheeran revealed the existence of another full Aaron Dessner-produced project that came out of the sessions for – (Subtract), which the singer-songwriter released in May. Sheeran didn’t have clear-cut goals for the album at the time. But, like his friend Taylor Swift, it seems he has hit a special stride working with Dessner. Just four months after the release of (Subtract), Autumn Variations is here. It’s Sheeran in just-in-time-for-fall mode, a collection of reflective songs with melodies that swirl like eddying leaves and lyrics full of pumpkin-ale introspection that often dwell on the seasonal nature of personal growth.
With Autumn Variations, Sheeran has entered a new season of his own life: His seventh studio album is the first outside of the mathematical symbol thread that connected his earlier work, and the first LP off the British songwriter’s label, Gingerbread Man Records. But in looking forward, he hasn’t left the past behind entirely, as many of the album’s songs bring to mind the sweet simplicity of his earlier 2010s albums, + (Plus) and x (Multiply), though with a mature twist. The LP is inspired by Sheeran’s friends “going through so many life changes,” and is directly influenced by the work of 20th-century English composer Edward Elgar’s similarly themed Enigma Variations. In a statement, Sheeran explained, “After the heat of the summer, everything either calmed, settled, fell apart, came to a head, or imploded.”
On Autumn Variations, the storytelling skills that paved the way for Sheeran’s mainstream success are on full display. “Plastic Bag” psychoanalyzes a hedonistic friend who tries to find the cure to their depression at the bottom of plastic drug baggies. Similarly, “Spring” and “When Will I Be Alright” are about clawing your way out of despair with soft, acoustic melodies as a salve against sorrow. In the guitar-plucked “Page,” a selfish friend is stuck in the throes of a broken relationship they’re at fault for ending: “For a moment of glory, I would risk all I am,” Sheeran sings. Another friend suffers a piercing heartbreak in “Punchline,” as Sheeran belts with unrestrained energy over a rock-infused crescendo that might bring to mind Hozier’s sweeping indie folk.
“That’s on Me” is the highpoint of Autumn Variations. The song is a cynical call-back to Sheeran’s early sing-songy rapping on hits like “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You,” with the singer sharing some of his (or a friend’s) deepest, darkest thoughts: “I count to 10, and I hope to disappear,” he offers, surmising if life doesn’t get better, “we’re fucked, aren’t we?”
It’s not all doom and gloom. Some of Autumn Variations’ brightest moments chronicle the blossoming romantic lives of Sheeran’s friends. Album opener, “Magical,” is a twinkling, immersive track about love at first sight. The delicate ballad “American Girl” tells a story about falling in love in cramped apartments over boxes of Chinese takeout and drinking from stolen copper mugs. On an album filled with tough philosophical questions and bleak realities, Autumn Variations ends on a positive note with “Head > Heels” — a love song in the major key that could play over the closing credits of a rom-com set in the fall. With the creative roll Sheeran seems to be on, who knows what will be next from him? He might be already bracing for winter.