The new album by Ed Sheeran portrays the singer-songwriter as a man who is bravely battling against forces that threaten to bring him and his young family to ruin.(Annie Leibovitz)
Nobody's idea of the ideal album release is a potentially disastrous lawsuit. But for Ed Sheeran and his new LP, that's kind of how things turned out.
Just hours after a federal jury in New York decided that he hadn't plagiarized Marvin Gaye's Motown classic "Let's Get It On" when writing his smash 2014 ballad "Thinking Out Loud,
" the wildly popular British singer released "-" on Thursday night, calling the album "Subtract" in line with his four previous math-themed releases.
The victory was unquestionably good news for Sheeran, who had been charged with copyright infringement by the family of Ed Townsend, the co-writer of Gaye's song.
Even a court defeat would have changed how people view an artist who is often seen as ruthless and coolly effective—provided the singer didn't quit music as he suggested on the stand.
He played a guitar for the jury to show the similarities and differences between his song and "Let's Get It On" while acknowledging that pop music is based on certain compositional building blocks.