Ed Sheeran
+

Like it or not, even youngsters under 25 have the right to break through the rocky walls of concrete and snobbery of the music biz, a right that—when not denied—can produce excellent results. Naturally, leaving aside the appalling swarm of rappers, pseudo-rappers, and fake wizards of synth and eardrum-breaking bass, the current scene has brought to light some quite impressive fresh creative minds, a youth halfway between the heavy legacies of their predecessors and the cheerful and carefree enterprise of the budding "greenhorn" and debutant.

Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran, born in 1991, is the classic English lad to feed to the most irreverent aesthetic stereotypes. Tousled red hair, freckled and slightly flushed cheeks, attire between the self-denying nerd and the heartthrob still in his early stages—Sheeran is practically a novelty (or just about) in the show biz—not only British, and he is forced to clash with the high courtiership in the chart-topping, glittery, and chic pop little inclined to admit among its newcomers the seemingly charisma-devoid fledglings, lacking macho allure or even potential teenage attraction (see his nearby Anglo-Irish colleagues, the One Direction, a band of Justin Bieber clones useful only for filling newsstands and gadget shops). And yet, this example of youthful "normalcy" and "basicness" has delivered a remarkable debut album, + (Plus) which not only proved excellent, rich, and compact, but managed to break into the English and even the American charts, the latter with little inclination to break the stern Yankee parochialism and admit overseas artists into the top ten.

Released in 2011 and still resonating in even our local playlists, + does not propose itself as yet another jumble of mixed sounds and moods nor does it fall into the banality and blandness basely justifiable with the little experience in the musical and marketing-business field. Instead, it is a good acoustic pop composition with successful soul-unplugged and hip-hop contaminations, simple in its intent and very pleasant in its results, free of excessive multifacetedness and false inspirations. Every track flows smoothly and uncontaminated, a path far from the artificially tortuous environment of today's mainstream and yet always able to embrace not only the niches of lovers of simple and reflective melodies, but all those who want to delve into works where rigor rather than cover appearance predominates.

With The A Team, the first track of the playlist and its most successful single, we rightfully delve into the soul of +, savoring an intense pop-folk ballad à la Kings of Convenience, not too mushy and sugary, before losing ourselves in the acoustic hip-hop of U.N.I. and the R&B-funky strains of Grade 8. We then turn to the already known Lego House, a sort of soul-unplugged lullaby featuring none other than Rupert Grint, the fiery Ron Weasley of the Harry Potter film saga, only to dive into the warm tribalism akin to Tracy Chapman in Small Bump, the cheeky rock of Drunk and the rapping You Need Me, I Don't Need You, the pure unplugged example in This and finally the melancholy ghetto-inspired The City.

An impressive show of courage stamped in a work promoted with a high rating, a worthy piece from a lad far from the usual clichés of the Bieber of the moment. And perhaps, this pop of starlets and charlatans seriously needs a rigorous cleansing and slimming down with Mr. Sheeran and his +, hopes for a future of entertainment, rhythms, and melodies in which the young of the aforementioned "normalcy" and "basicness" can also make similar triumphant entries, currently labeled as outcasts and non-fashionables.

Ed Sheeran, +

The A Team - Drunk - U.N.I. - Grade 8 - Wake Me Up - Small Bump - This - The City - Lego House - You Need Me, I Don't Need You - Kiss Me - Give Me Love.