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Lyrics shine in Sheeran’s debut

Ed Sheeran
“+”
(Atlantic Records)

The album that sold more than 58,000 copies in the first week of its release in Britain, becoming the highest-selling and highest-charting debut single of 2011 is finally on sale in Korea.

British singer Ed Sheeran is indebted to artists such as Jamie T and Damien Rice, as evidenced by a debut that hops between bullish mockney rap and quavering sentimentality.

Surprisingly, there’s also a Justin Bieber-like quality to Sheeran’s appeal. There are the 20-year-old’s almost 300,000 Twitter followers, for one thing, but more dubiously, he and Bieber share a tendency to address their songs to vulnerable teenage girls.

Half-rapped banalities about watching Shrek 12 times and being “crap at computer games” will certainly win hearts, but perhaps only those of a certain age.

Tracks like “The A Team” and “Drunk” evidently carry a “Damien Rice sentiment,” while “U.N.I” and “Small Bump” show off a lyrical sharpness that carry the emotional details of today’s youth.

(hayney@heraldcorp.com)


Tim does what he does best in new album

Tim
“A Day is too Long”
(Sony Music)

While he might not be a man of vivid individuality, singer Tim has always managed to amuse his faithful -- and mostly female -- fans with melody and lyrics that blend in rather than stand out.

In his new mini-album, containing six tracks, Tim proves he is still at the top -- at least in the genre he knows best -- at the age of 30; the singer whispers love and anxiety with depth he definitely lacked as a 20-something.

Track No. 1, “A Day is too Long,” is a remake of Shota Shimizu’s “Sakura” and carries a story about a man spending a day that seems like forever after breaking up with his ex without wanting to.

Track No. 4 is a mid-tempo song composed by Kim Jin-hwan, famous for the songs he wrote for pop groups Girls’ Generation and Big Mama.

The fifth track, composed by Korean pianist Iruma, is perhaps the “most Tim-like” song in the album, carrying Tim’s voice upon a placid piano performance.
(hayney@heraldcorp.com)


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