I have often praised Ed Sheeran about his music. I have always said Ed Sheeran and his acoustic guitar produces the best music today. However, now it is time to take a closer look at his songs and try my best to fit them into a ranking scale from 1 to 10–where 1 being the best and 10 being the 10th best song from his career. Granted, Ed Sheeran has had only two studio albums so far, but ranking even one track is a super impossible task–they are that good. I also feel like I’m ‘unqualified‘ to rank any of his music based on any technicalities, so I will be ranking this top 10 songs list based on my preference for each song.
There will be so much more great music he will be producing in the coming years. So this top 10 songs list will undoubtedly be invalid in a few months. So this list contains tracks from his career up until December 2014.
Ed Sheeran has had two studio albums so far: “+” and “Multiply“, and I will try to do justice to both albums in picking the top 10 songs, but I believe his latter album was quite better. So I can’t help but give more weightage to “Multiply”.
Buy Ed Sheeran’s “+” Album on iTunes / Amazon
Buy Ed Sheeran’s “Multiply” Album on iTunes / Amazon
Also I will be considering all the EPs and singles he has released so far. Tracks such as “I See Fire” from the soundtrack of The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, “All of The Stars” from The Fault In Our Stars movie. and “Make It Rain” from Sons of Anarchy are equally competing in this list. So it will be a comprehensive round up of all of his music up until now.
So let the impossible begin:
Top 10 Songs of Ed Sheeran
01. Thinking Out Loud
I’m sorry if this seems like a cliche, but it is the plain truth. This song trumps all of his work, and probably some of the best songs by other artists as well. Lyrically I would give it 10, creativity wise I would give it 10 and music and track production I would give it 10. It’s just perfect in so many ways. Even as we speak “Thinking Out Loud” is climbing Billboard Hot 100 chart in rapid pace. It is currently ranked number 4, up 2 spots from last week.
The music video was just as perfect for the song. Ed Sheeran had to learn how to dance for this music video and it paid off. The music video contains Eddie and another girl perform a beautifully choreographed dance. It’s mesmerizing to look at with “Thinking Out Loud” playing in the background
Buy “Thinking Out Loud” single on iTunes / Amazon
Watch “Thinking Out Loud” Music Video here
All of these things combined, I would rank “Thinking Out Loud” as number one song on this top 10 songs list of the world’s favorite ginger.
02. A Team
This is one of the foremost songs that made me fall in love with Ed Sheeran. This is from his debut album “+” and is also the first track on the album. The one thing that captivated me was the meaning behind the lyrics. This is not a direct song and if you don’t follow the lyrics and read between the lines, you will lose the real meaning behind it. The song is about drug addicts and he never mentions the words ‘drug’ or ‘addict’ in the entire song. That’s talent son! This song is proof to the fact that Eddie really can craft some great lyrics. So 10 out of 10 for the lyrical value and creativity. Maybe 9.5 for music and everything else.
Buy “A Team” on iTunes / Amazon
Watch “A Team” Music Video here
The powerful lyrics, the powerful message in it and the powerful music video pushed “A Team” to be ranked number 2 on the top 10 songs list of Ed Sheeran.
03. All of The Stars
This is such a beautiful song with a painful memory underneath it. This was written and sung by Ed Sheeran as the theme song for “The Fault In Our Stars” movie. The song was an instant hit as expected. The song gives life to a beautiful story about two lovers who are parted away. This song definitely earns 10 points for it’s lyrics and creativity.
Buy “All of The Stars” Single on iTunes / Amazon
Watch “All of The Stars” music video
“The Fault In Our Stars” movie was adapted from John Green‘s book “The Fault In Our Stars”. I haven’t read it but those who have say it is a beautiful story. And I believe that this song did justice to the movie and the book and hence earns the third spot on the top 10 songs list.
04. I See Fire
“I See Fire” is from the soundtrack of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and it is absolutely stunning. The song plays at the end credits of the movie, just after the dragon, Smaug, leaves the dwarf mines, to set fire to the small fish town. So the timing is perfect. The song describes how everything will look when Smaug the Dragon starts burning up the place–the sky is burning red, the trees hollow and burnt, and desolation looming over the sky. The lyrics of this song are just to die for. Listen for yourself:
Watch Ed Sheeran Perform “I See Fire”
Buy “I See Fire” single on iTunes / Amazon
“I see fire, hollow in soul,”
If this line isn’t the perfect description of fire, I don’t know what is. Fire burns everything in it’s way, it shows no remorse, it is evil–it has no soul!!! Eargasms!!! If not the 4th spot, “I See Fire” should earn a higher spot on the top 10 songs list.
05. One (Live and Acoustic)
“One” is the first track on Ed Sheeran’s second album “Multiply“. The track on the album is not a live and acoustic version, and we first got to hear the live and acoustic version, before the album released and I didn’t believe anything could beat that song until of course “Thinking Out Loud” came along. It’s not like the version on the album is any bad, but I just love acoustic versions of songs. So this is just better.
Buy “One” on iTunes / Amazon
Watch Ed Sheeran Perform “One” Live
So finally an acoustic version made it into the top 10 songs of Ed Sheeran, although I would have guessed a higher rank for this track.
06. Lego House
Finally, I think I picked the right spot for this song. This is the very first track I heard of Ed Sheeran. I do admit, it took me a few listens to fall in love with this song and every song after it.
“Lego House” is the ninth track from Ed’s debut album and gained a lot of popularity immediately after its release. “Lego House“, “Drunk” and “A Team” together pushed the album to be a huge success and Ed to be an international-selling artist.
Buy “Lego House” on iTunes / Amazon
Watch “Lego House” music video
Yes, that’s Ron Weasley from The Harry Potter. He had me fooled at first too. LOL. They are quite alike.
07. Don’t
This song has one of the better music videos of all. “Don’t” is the fourth track on “Multiply” and kind of aligns with Ed Sheeran’s success story–or the story of a random person who woke up in dirt and slept in a mansion!
Ed Sheeran barely appears in this music video (look at the picture above) but it has a very good meaning behind the visuals. The story of a man becoming successful, which could be loosely related to Ed’s life itself. But he never confirmed anything about it.
Buy “Don’t” on iTunes / Amazon
Watch Ed Sheeran’s “Don’t” music video
This beautiful fast paced song can be ranked seven on Ed Sheeran’s top 10 songs list.
08. Give Me Love (Acoustic)
After a little self-debate I decided to give the upper hand to the acoustic version as opposed to the album version. The album version is the twelfth track on “+” and the acoustic version was recorded in The Live Room live.
“Give Me Love” is one of the most beautiful and meaningful songs in Ed Sheeran’s songs portfolio.
Buy “Give Me Love” on iTunes / Amazon
Watch Ed Sheeran Perform “Give Me Love” Acoustic Version Live
“Give Me Love” probably deserves a higher spot on the top 10 songs list, but I see no possible tracks that can be demoted. So, I leave it be. :/
09. Photograph
“Photograph” maybe should earn a higher spot than number nine on the top 10 songs of Ed Sheeran, but there’s really no song I can demote to make room for it. “Photograph” is the sixth track on “Multiply” and one of the most beautiful songs I have ever come across. It’s a love song/ballad and says how bad the real life is, the memories/scenes in the photographs are always the best and the ones we cherish. So “we keep this love in a photograph” because that’s only place it can exist right now. And the song goes on and on…
The lyrical wordplay is really amazing in this song, although the meaning is pretty straightforward.
Buy Ed Sheeran’s “Photograph” on iTunes / Amazon
Listen to “Photograph” by Ed Sheeran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYc9NPiVw7c
10. Tenerife Sea
“Tenerife Sea” is such a beautiful song. It’s one of those songs you can play it on repeat for a day and still not get tired of it. It’s that beautiful. The French lyric is an amazing touch too. “Lumiere darling, Lumiere over me,” means ‘light darling, light over me”. It’s so beautiful coming out of Ed Sheeran.
“Tenerife Sea” was released as a promotional single off the second studio album and I was instantly mesmerized by it and still love it as much as I loved it when I first heard it.
Buy Ed Sheeran’s “Tenerife Sea” on iTunes / Amazon
Listen to “Tenerife Sea” with Lyrics on Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l3VcoZta9w
If the top 10 songs were ranked only from “Multiply” album, this song would definitely earn a spot on the top three songs. That’s how addicted I am to it. I think it’s natural, cuz it’s stunningly beautiful–the words and everything!
This definitely was not an easy top 10 songs list to make. It will even harder as he keeps on releasing more and more great music. Even these songs are ranked in a top 10 songs list, some songs definitely compared parallel to other songs ranked higher on the list. I wish there were more numbers in between so I could fit many more into this top 10 songs list. LOL.
I feel like the list turned out to be OK. But still this is my opinion and my taste of music. So I would love to hear from you all about your top 10 songs list of Ed Sheeran. If you agree with our list for the most part, do leave a comment about it and if you think certain songs should switch spots on the top 10 songs list, do mention them and do mention your reasons for the change.
Until we see you from the next top 10 songs list, happy holidays!
