Ed Sheeran’s new album Subtract will explore the themes of grief and loss, and its first single goes down a similar path. The music video for “Eyes Closed” is here and it sees Sheeran being followed by a big blue monster that represents his grief and suffering.
Sheeran described “Eyes Closed” as a song about losing someone and being reminded of them at every turn. The big blue monster is the video’s most interesting motif, and it’s supposed to represent sadness that follows us around, engulfing the rooms we’re in.
“You can feel and see it, but no one else around you can. So I decided to create my own big blue monster for the video. He gets bigger and bigger as the video goes on, till he takes up whole rooms, and is all I can see, just like sadness,” explained Sheeran.
When he initially started writing “Eyes Closed” a few years ago, it was supposed to be a breakup song, but Sheeran’s outlook changed in the light of several personal tragedies. The sudden death of his closest friend Jamal Edwards eventually served as inspiration for this track and several others on his upcoming album.
Subtract will hit the shelves on May 5, and the standard edition will feature a total of 14 songs, including “Eyes Closed”.
