Ed Sheeran Tries to Rise Above the Tide in New Song “Boat”

Came in for the embers / Stayed out for the breeze / I need to feel elements to remind me / There’s beauty when it’s bleak, Ed Sheeran sings in the opening lines of his newly released song “Boat.”

“Boat” acts as the opening act for Sheeran’s impending album, Subtract (stylized as –). The lyrics are a metaphor for the depression Sheeran fell into after a year’s worth of painful events.

“Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumor, with no route to treatment until after the birth,” shared Sheeran earlier this year. “My best friend Jamal [Edwards], a brother to me, died suddenly and I found myself standing in court defending my integrity and career as a songwriter. I was spiraling through fear, depression, and anxiety. I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air.”

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To evoke that same feeling, Sheeran filmed the music video for “Boat” in the sea while waves crashed around him. Try as he may, Sheeran struggles to stay above the tide. Check out the music video, below.

Subtract is due on May 5. Sheeran says the project has been a decade in the making.

“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,” said Sheeran in a statement. “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.”

Prior to releasing “Boat,” Sheeran shared another song titled “Eyes Closed,” which follows the singer’s mental state following Edwards’ death.

Elsewhere, Sheeran has announced he planning a posthumous album that he will continually add to throughout his career.

“I want to slowly make this album that is quote-unquote ‘perfect’ for the rest of my life, adding songs here and there,” Sheeran said. “And just have it in my will that after I die, it comes out.”

(Photo: Dan Martensen / courtesy Atlantic Records)