Ed Sheeran has teased he has new music arriving this year.
The ‘Perfect’ hitmaker had previously revealed he won’t release his next album until "late 2020" as he wanted to take another long break, but he now has a "collection" of tracks that he wants to share with the world before he disappears from the public eye again.
The new music is separate to the song he’s penned for the forthcoming Beatles movie by Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis, which is as-yet-untitled, which also sees him play himself.
According to The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column, Ed said: "I’ve just finished the film . . . and I’ve got some stuff coming out.
"I can’t really say for certain when, or what it is, it’s just a collection of songs and I don’t know whether it’s going to be one song, five, or 15."
The ‘Castle on the Hill’ singer – whose shows in 2019 include a homecoming gig in Ipswich, Suffolk, on August 26 – previously said: "I’ve got things coming out, I don’t know if they’re albums. But I’ve got things coming out. The next ‘album album’ won’t be for a while.
"After this, September is the end of tour next year, then I’m going to do another blackout and go away for a year.
"It worked last time for both me and the public, I think it’s good to have a little break. The next album, no earlier than 2020. Late 2020."
At the beginning of last year, Ed – who similarly took a break in 2015 following his ‘Multiply’ album to spend time with his fiancee Cherry Seaborn, who is believed to have since married in secret – revealed his fourth full-length LP could be a big departure, as he opened up on the pressure to create constant pop hits.
He explained: "The reason it’s not a pop album is people expect you to come and the next album they’re going to be like ‘it has to be bigger than ‘Shape of You’ and it has to sell more than this’, but if I control it and go ‘here’s a lo-fi record that I really f****** love,’ my fans are gonna be like ‘Yay!’, and the pop world are gonna be like ‘oh well, maybe the next one.’"
The 27-year-old chart-topper certainly won’t be short of material, as his ‘Shape of You’ co-writer Steve Mac previously confirmed the pair penned 20 tracks together in five days.
He told BANG Showbiz: "We write all the time, about two months ago we were in the studio for five days and we wrote 20 songs and it was an incredible thing, you know the man is just a machine when it comes to songwriting."
Ed Sheeran to release new music in 2019
