I’ve fallen in love with the New Boring

OK, I’m preparing for the deluge from people bitching that I’ve got it soooooo wrong.

But I swear, I See Fire by Ed Sheeran must be pretty damn close to the most beautiful song EVER (despite what my nephew said about it not suiting the movie it was written for, the latest Hobbit installment).

Listen to it and let me know what you think …

There’s a good chance you’ll hate Ed’s music. Lots of people do. Certainly, his appeal seems a bit of mystery to the music press, who didn’t care for his debut album, +, at all.

“I think I got one good review,” Sheeran told The Guardian, “in the Halifax Courier or something.”

One writer also famously suggested it formed part of a movement he named the New Boring. Ed reckons he “loves” being part of the New Boring: “If Adele’s seen as boring, then I’m happy to be boring as well.”

So there.

Actually, I’m pretty filled with Ed Sheeran love generally. For one, he’s a successful redhead – at just 23 – who has a voice like an angel and has inspired legions of rabid fans called Sheeranators. Go the gingers!

Not that it was easy. He told SBTV’s NCS (via 4music), “Every single label I had gone to at the time had told me [‘The A Team’] wasn’t a hit. They said this song wouldn’t work. And the fact that I was slightly chubby and ginger was not a good ‘marketing tool’ for them. So it did definitely feel like it wasn’t going to happen.”

It wasn’t just the record companies that had it out for him and his looks.

“I think everyone goes through a bit of bullying at school,” he confessed last year to The Daily Mail. “Of course you get picked on for certain things, but I think it ends up being a positive.

“I was quite a weird kid when I was little, I wore big glasses, had hearing problems, had a stutter and I had ginger hair, but I am now a successful musician and I have nothing to complain about. So I have come out the other end and blossomed.”

He added: “Being ginger can seem like a bad thing when you are young but as a musician it has been my saving grace – because if you see a ginger kid on TV and there is only one messy-haired ginger kid who plays guitar, it is very easy to find them on YouTube.”

Ed’s recording career kicked off in 2011 with his debut album, +, which contained the singles “The A Team” and “Lego House“

Although I kinda prefer the Lego unofficial one …

And now the Sheeranators are screaming their heads off.

Olivia Wilson at Crushable writes:

Ed Sheeran, oblivious as he is, can’t understand why people keep calling him a sex symbol. In his mind, every woman who screams bloody murder whenever he’s within ten yards of her actually wants to swaddle him like a baby, not have sex. Oh Ed. Poor without-a-clue Ed. In an interview with People Magazine, he admitted that he is totally not on the same page as the rest of the world when it comes to his status as a sex symbol. Like, several pages behind. He truthfully hasn’t even gotten through the table of contents yet, which is evidenced by the fact that he says things like this:

“I find the whole concept of women screaming at me so odd. It’s very flattering, but I don’t think I will ever consider myself to be a sex symbol. If you speak to most women, they want to take me home and mother me rather than take me to bed. I just have that impression.”

Meanwhile Single Girl Status outlines The Top 10 Reasons Ed Sheeran Would Be The Perfect Boyfriend here (complete with more cute GIFs)

He’s seduced Hollywood too.

He spent Thanksgiving with Jennifer Aniston …

During an interview with omg! UK, he admitted: “We spent Thanksgiving eve at Jennifer’s… I passed out [at her house]. I had drunk a bit too much and needed a time out, so I went down and laid on one of the beds outside by the pool and passed out there.”

He also lived in Courtney Cox’s pool house for a while and introduced her to Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid (pictured with him below).

“I wasn’t allowed to talk about this, actually, but it’s just gone public so…” he admitted. “My housemate [McDaid],who I lived with for a year, I introduced him to Courteney and they started dating – now they’re crazy for each other.”

I’m struggling a little with him being besties with Taylor Swift …

The pair are currently on tour together. Last week she posted a video of them on Instagram singing “Heartbeats” by The Knife at the US ambassador’s house somewhere in Europe.