Ed Sheeran Play
Ed Sheeran's Play arrives as a split personality: a record that courts familiar radio-ready balladry even as it reaches for cross-cultural adventure. Across six professional reviews, critics identified hits and misfires with roughly even measures of praise and reservation, producing a consensus score of 58.83/100 from six reviews that frames Play as ambitious but uneven.
Critics consistently praise the album's standout songs for either emotional clarity or successful stylistic risk. Reviews name “Sapphire” and “Azizam” among the best songs on Play for their Punjabi and Persian-inflected textures, and several outlets single out “Symmetry” as a fruitful experiment in South and West Asian rhythms. At the same time, dependable power ballads such as “Camera” and “The Vow” recur as the emotional anchor points that will satisfy established fans. Reviewers repeatedly note themes of emotional darkness, family illness and relationship turmoil beneath slick production, and they praise moments like “Old Phone” and “Opening” for revealing genuine vulnerability amid glossier material.
The critical consensus stresses a tension between calculated polish and authentic moments of invention. Some critics argue that too many saccharine or wedding-ready tracks dilute the album's ambition, while others applaud Sheeran's genre-hopping and international collaborations as evidence of stylistic risk-taking. For readers wondering if Play is worth listening to, the short verdict from professional reviews is qualified: the album contains must-listen highlights and bold cross-cultural turns, but its uneven sequencing and occasional retreat into comfort render it a mixed, often intriguing addition to Sheeran's catalog.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
comes close to crafting a Major Lazer banger on "Symmetry"
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Opening
Sapphire
Azizam
Old Phone
Symmetry
Camera
In Other Words
A Little More
Slowly
Don’t Look Down
The Vow
For Always
Heaven
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 6 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Ed Sheeran presses the titular button on Play with a familiar mix of heartfelt busker material and big pop anthems that will satisfy fans. The reviewer singles out “Opening” for its head-spinning bars and highlights the tearjerker “Old Phone” and lovelorn “Camera” as the album's emotional centerpieces. International flavors punctuate the set, from Arijit Singh on “Sapphire” to Persian-tinged “Azizam”, which keep the formula fresh. Concise and crowd-pleasing, Play delivers its best tracks with a blend of intimacy and radio-ready sheen.
Key Points
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The best song, "Old Phone", stands out as the album's emotional centerpiece because it is called a "bittersweet tearjerker."
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Play's core strengths are its blend of intimate near-acoustic moments and radio-ready pop, plus tasteful international collaborations.
Themes
Critic's Take
The Pitchfork critic writes in a mordant, conversational tone that singles out a few tracks as revealing amid a broadly lazy record. Ed Sheeran's Play is described as retreating to wedding songs and global bangers, but the review names “Opening” as the clearest reveal of weariness and half-hearted ambition. The critic notes that the best tracks — notably “Opening” — feel like promising hooks into a record that too often sounds like calculated filler. The narrative is terse, sardonic, and grounded in concrete lyrical examples to answer queries about the best songs on Play.
Key Points
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The best song, "Opening," is prized for revealing Sheeran's weariness and career doubts despite musical flaws.
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The album's core strengths are occasional lyrical candor and a few surefire hit instincts amid otherwise calculated, half-hearted execution.
Themes
Critic's Take
Ed Sheeran on Play is at his most adventurous when he leans into specific cross-cultural experiments, which is why the best songs on Play are tracks like “Azizam” and “Sapphire”. The reviewer applauds the Persian-tinged hooks and santur colours on “Azizam”, and notes the Goa-recorded Punjabi-Western mashup of “Sapphire” even as banal lyrics weigh it down. Simpler ballads such as “Slowly” and “For Always” are praised as some of the album's strongest moments, patient tear-jerkers that let Sheeran's emotion register. Overall the album is ambitious and glossy but shaggy, a buffet of sounds that needs a clearer signature dish.
Key Points
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The best song is "Azizam" because its Persian instrumentation and off-kilter hook make cross-cultural borrowing feel energised and distinctive.
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The album's core strengths are glossy production and occasional effective simplicity, but ambition is undercut by safe melodies and diluted world influences.
Themes
Critic's Take
Ed Sheeran aims for forward motion on Play, but the best songs are the ones that actually push him into new territory. The review highlights “Sapphire” and “Symmetry” as the album's most successful experiments, where South and West Asian rhythms give him a fresh pop wave. At the same time, familiar ballads like “Camera” and “The Vow” keep pulling the record back toward radio-ready sentimentality, which undercuts the album's stated ambition. If you are searching for the best songs on Play, start with “Sapphire” and “Symmetry” for forward motion, then move to “Camera” for comfort.
Key Points
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The best song(s) are the cross-cultural experiments - notably "Sapphire" - because they bring fresh rhythms and forward motion.
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The album's core strength is Sheeran's polished singer-songwriter balladry, even though it undercuts attempts at progress.
Themes
Critic's Take
The best tracks on Play arrive when Sheeran shakes off autopilot and leans into risk: “Azizam” and “Sapphire” promise adventurous, Persian- and Punjabi-inflected colour, while “Opening” and “Old Phone” show the record's emotional core. The reviewer’s voice admires the stylistic hopscotch that worked on '÷' and finds echoes of that daring here, even if too many saccharine ballads dilute the impact. Overall, Ed Sheeran sounds rallied and vulnerable on Play, with those standout songs proving why listeners hunting for the best songs on Play should start with “Opening” and “Azizam”.
Key Points
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The best song moments come when Sheeran embraces genre-hopping, especially on “Azizam” and “Sapphire”.
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The album’s core strengths are emotional honesty and occasional adventurous production, balanced against too many familiar ballads.
Themes
Critic's Take
Ed Sheeran remains reliably himself on Play, which means the best tracks are the ones where that dependability pays off - notably “Camera” and “The Vow”, two ruthlessly effective power ballads that land hardest. The album’s Indian touches, heard on “Sapphire” and “Symmetry”, are window dressing more often than reinvention, though “Symmetry” finds the record softly pushing at boundaries. Surprisingly, it is also the small moments of menace and anger - most pointedly on “A Little More” - that make the best songs feel alive and unpredictable.
Key Points
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The best song(s) excel when Sheeran’s dependable songwriting meets big, well-crafted power balladry, as on "Camera".
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Play’s core strengths are dependability, polished ballad craftsmanship and occasional risk-taking via Indian elements and unexpected anger.