Ed Sheeran comes to his eighth album on the back foot.
His last two records, the subdued and introspective Subtract and Autumn Variations, were commercial misfires, selling less than half a million copies each. (His biggest, 2017's Divide, sold 8.4 million in the UK alone).
Those records dealt with weighty topics - the death of his friend Jamal Edwards, and his wife Cherry's diagnosis and recovery from cancer. The songs were cathartic, not designed for chart domination - but for the first time in a long time, Sheeran was left with something to prove.
He gets straight into it on his new record, on an opening track encumbered with the blindingly literal title, "Opening".
"When your career's in a risky place / Everything seems like a big mistake / I'm still looking for [something] to say / Deluding myself that they still relate"
