Is Ed Sheeran making savvy streaming era decisions? Do we have to like it?

How much should we value cover albums?

How much should we value cover albums?

OK let's take "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None The Richer and its cover by New Found Glory. Are they both in your library? Which version have you listened to more in the past 10 years?

Is it a landslide? Is it close?

What about "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette and the Four Year Strong cover? What about the Save Ferris "Come on Eileen" cover?

Here's what I'm getting at, for now, before we get to something else: how much should we value cover albums? They, we have to assume, at least from a writing standpoint, take less emotional and creative effort from the artist.

In 2012, non-UK fans got a heavy dose of Ed Sheeran when he joined Taylor Swift for a Red album duet called "Everything Has Changed." It was very sweet and he seems to have the right voice for it.

(Sometimes, UK artists, or even Australian artists, are nice to listen to if only for the novelty it provides for American fans. I don’t think Sheeran falls into this category, I just think it would have been a much different duet had, say, the lead singer of The Arctic Monkeys and Kate Nash took a stab at it. I feel bad using them as examples because they’re great, but I think you know what I’m getting at.)

Since the Swift duet — and ensuing tour dates with Swift — we've had a few solo Sheeran albums, a few hits, a picture of him wearing a T-shirt next to an elegantly dressed Beyonce, and for whatever reason, some of you may be aware of the term Sheerios.

He's played Wembley, he's played Madison Square Garden — he's a legitimate star.

A few weeks ago, a picture made the rounds on social media featuring the features list on his latest project, appropriately called "No. 6 Collaborations Project."

This album, feels, somehow, like a cover album. And though the title of the project is self-aware, it's jarring that "Cross Me" featuring Chance the Rapper and PnB Rock and "BLOW" featuring Chris Stapleton and Bruno Mars appear in the same collection of music.

"BLOW" feels almost like a Jackson Maine song from the most recent "Star is Born" remake. But is Sheeran in on it by inviting a real-life Jackson Maine type in Stapleton to join the collaboration? Does Stapleton's involvement inherently justify the riff in the song?

Go listen to the riff, and then go watch the opening concert sequence in the most recent "Star is Born" remake ("Black Eyes"). One is written to let the moviegoer know, without a doubt, what type of artist Maine is. The other was recently featured on a collaborations project by a modern pop star, an effort that Pitchfork gave a 5.3 and called a "hopelessly transparent attempt at a hip-hop crossover."

So, how much do we value cover albums?

How much do we value Sheeran's latest effort? We know Spotify and other streaming services may be changing the music itself. But will it change the way artists view the concept of an album?

It is possible Sheeran, in recruiting Chance, Justin Bieber, and Travis Scott for the collaborations project made the best business decision he possibly could have in 2019's version of the music industry. Each song could make any number of different playlists, separating him, slowly but surely, from Top 40 hit playlists from 2017 as well as the wedding your coworker and his or her wife or husband danced slowly to "Thinking Out Loud."

I think what bugs me is Sheeran, at his best, holds his own right next to Stapleton and Mars on "BLOW." Those two artists can bring the motherfucking thunder, and the track, alone in a vacuum, rips, at least, a good bit.

It feels cheaper having heard Jackson Maine's (fictional) work, in the same way, it feels kind of cheap to add the Save Ferris version of "Come on Eileen" to a playlist instead of the original; it's almost as if I should write an apology to Dexy and c/o his midnight runners on the envelope.

I am not suggesting Sheeran invented collaborations or collaboration projects, or that he is some kind of streaming era genius, but this is the most recent and egregious version given how different some of the songs feel and sound.

So should we value cover albums or Sheeran's collaborations project the same way we value a more traditional approach to an album? Not necessarily. But we may have to get used to seeing them.

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