Foy Vance and Ed Sheeran’s Heartbreaking “Blue”

You want to give the guy a hug.

Okay, so we know about his great high tenor voice – a really good range. It doesn’t really matter what he sings, you just want to listen to him sing it. But he also has this sensitive soul.

Ed Sheeran lives in his feelings. He takes the time to process, and he cares enough to express what’s going on with him really well. You feel the authenticity, especially in a song like “Blue.”

In the past, it has seemed that – when asked to respond to something on the spot – it’s not always his strong suit. That doesn’t really matter, though, because Ed is willing to take the time and put in the work, emotionally and artistically, to do the thoughts and emotions that he wants to express justice.

It took a while to read the signs,
But she used to be a friend of mine.
Leading forward, but fell behind –
Loneliness redefined.

You want to sit down for a good long coffee with the guy. Well, maybe tea, I don’t know. Or maybe go for a bit of a hike somewhere, where he can talk in his own time, and you can just take in the scenery, no pressure.

But then, maybe sitting in silence is a bit too much as well.

For all that, in the song “Blue”, Ed alludes to not feeling comfortable with the silence. Maybe that processing time, when someone is just looking at you and waiting for you to say something, maybe that feels like pressure. Or, silence – without someone else filling it in, with familiar sounds and even some jabbering – feels like absence. That’s the basis for the song “Blue,” actually –

Silence ain’t golden
You know that it’s only blue

I suspect that, when things get too quiet, Ed either escapes to somewhere loud enough to drown the thoughts that come with it, or he goes to the studio and works on some music. Ed has made a lot of music.

His lyric video for “Blue” on YouTube is really great. It’s just the lyrics in a kind of print-like font, with drawings that look like doodles done by amazing artists. While sitting here, writing about the song, I don’t mind watching the lyric video over and over again. The drawings range from a can of baked beans to a fireplace, to a dove, to a broken bottle, to a brain, to some scarves and winter clothing. Even if the video were silent, it would be worth watching. Ironically.

Still better to listen, though.