Ed Sheeran announces ‘Play’ release date and shares nostalgic single ‘Old Phone’

Ed Sheeran has shared the official release date for his new album, ‘Play’, and dropped a new single called ‘Old Phone’. Check out the details below.

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The new album was first confirmed by the singer, songwriter and guitarist in March, when he made an appearance on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon and shared the title for the project.

It came after weeks of teasing new material with fans, and will mark the end of his ‘Mathematics’ run of albums. These were inspired by mathematical symbols (‘Plus’, ‘Multiply’, ‘Divide’, ‘Subtract’ and ‘Equals’), and the new era stems from an idea he had aged 18, when he thought about a new chapter that would be ‘Play’, ‘Pause’, ‘Fast Forward’, ‘Rewind’ and ‘Stop’.

Now, Sheeran has dropped more details about the record, confirming that it will arrive on September 12. Visit here to pre-order.

He has also shared a new preview of the record in the form of a nostalgia-driven single called ‘Old Phone’.

The track was inspired after Sheeran powered up an old phone unused since 2015, and re-discovered messages from his late friend Jamal Edwards, an argument with an ex, and conversations with distant family members.

He first began teasing it this week when he unveiled an archival Instagram account called Teddy’s Old Phone, which sees him reflect on his life in 2015 and share previously unseen photographs from the era.

As for the sound, the new single captures a fitting feeling of nostalgia, and is full of acoustic melodies and raw, emotional vocals. The lyrics see the singer take a venture down memory lane, as he looks back on his early songwriting roots and comes to realise how he has become so shaped by his past. Check it out above.

“It felt like a time capsule, a time of life that I was in, and living at that time in 2015,” he explained. “Turning it on really spun me out, I found myself scrolling messages and conversations with people who are no longer here. I found myself crying at messages to friends who are now dead, who I won’t get to speak to again.”

He continued: “It feels like a song that should’ve been on my debut album, but also a song I couldn’t have written until I experienced real life things happening to me. It makes me emotional to sing, I hope it finds some emotion in you too. Maybe it makes you switch on your old phone and have a look at where you were a decade ago too. Whatever it does, I’m glad I wrote it.”

As for the album as a whole, ‘Play’ is set to see Sheeran stepping into a fresh new phase, and “exploring new musical ground through collaboration with producers and musicians from around the world.”

In part, it will show Sheeran honing in on the signature sound that first put him on the map, but it will also show a new musical direction as it was inspired in part by his exposure to Indian and Persian musical cultures and their connections to the Irish folk tradition.

“‘Play’ was an album that was made as a direct response to the darkest period of my life. Coming out of all of that I just wanted to create joy and technicolour, and explore cultures in the countries I was touring,” Sheeran shared. “I made this record all over the world, finished it in Goa, India, and had some of the most fun, explorative creative days of my life.

“It’s a real rollercoaster of emotions from start to finish, it encapsulates everything that I love about music, and the fun in it, but also where I am in life as a human, a partner, a father. Going into this album campaign I said to myself ‘I just want everything I do to be fun and playful’ – so that’s why we are building pubs for folk jams, doing gigs on open top busses and singing in pink cowboy hats on bars. The older I get the more I just want to enjoy things, and savour the moments that are mad and chaotic.” Check out the artwork above.

‘Old Phone’ marks the second single to be shared from ‘Play’ ahead of the September release. The first to be shared was the intriguing song ‘Azizam’, which was named after a Persian term of endearment that translates to “my dear” or “my beloved”.

The ‘Shape Of You’ singer has also shared information about other upcoming singles to. Recently he shared that a new track called ‘Sapphire’ will be released in the coming months, and he added that he plans to share new music every two or three weeks.

As for live shows, Sheeran is due to play a run of European shows from May to September 2025 before finishing up the year with performances in Bhutan, India, Qatar and Bahrain. Visit here for tickets.

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