Ed Sheeran released =, pronounced Equals, on October 29, 2021, through Asylum and Atlantic Records, and the Equals 5th anniversary lands this Thursday, October 29, 2026. The album was his fifth studio record and the fourth entry in his mathematics symbol series, following + in 2011, x in 2014 and ÷ in 2017. It arrived after the longest gap of his career, a break that covered the end of the record breaking Divide tour, marriage and the birth of his first daughter, and the music reflects that changed life directly.
Sheeran worked on the album across an unusually long window, recording between June 2017 and July 2021 in Suffolk, London, Sweden and Los Angeles. The executive production came from Sheeran himself, Johnny McDaid and Fred Again, with additional writing and production from Steve Mac, Joe Rubel, Amy Wadge, Foy Vance, Elvira Anderfjärd, David Hodges, Andrew Watt, Louis Bell, Natalie Hemby and Ben Kweller. His brother Matthew Sheeran contributed string arrangements to “First Times” and “The Joker and the Queen”. The cover art, a collage of butterfly imagery over one of Sheeran’s own abstract paintings, was designed around the album’s thread of new life.
What Sheeran said the record meant
At announcement, Sheeran was explicit that this was a personal turning point rather than a routine pop cycle.
“Equals is a really personal record and one that means a lot to me. My life changed greatly over the past few years. I got married, became a father, experienced loss, and I reflect on these topics over the course of the album. I see it as my coming-of-age record, and I can’t wait to share this next chapter with you.”
The loss he referenced runs through “Visiting Hours”, released as a promotional single and written shortly after the death of his mentor and friend Michael Gudinski, with backing vocals from Kylie Minogue and Jimmy Barnes on the recorded version. “Sandman” is a lullaby for his daughter. Set against those, the album’s singles pushed outward into some of the brightest pop of his catalogue, and that tension between the private songs and the public ones is the record’s defining shape.
The singles that carried Equals
Five singles carried the album. “Bad Habits”, released June 25, 2021, came with a Dave Meyers directed video that cast Sheeran as a vampire alter ego, bleached hair and fangs, and it has since passed 750 million views on YouTube. “Shivers” followed on September 10, 2021, and “Overpass Graffiti” arrived with the album on October 29. “The Joker and the Queen” was released as a single on February 11, 2022, and “2step” completed the run on April 22, 2022. The full 14 track sequence runs from “Tides” through “Shivers”, “First Times”, “Bad Habits”, “Overpass Graffiti”, “The Joker and the Queen”, “Leave Your Life”, “Collide”, “2step”, “Stop the Rain”, “Love in Slow Motion” and “Visiting Hours” to “Sandman” and “Be Right Now”, across 48 minutes.
A number one album on both sides of the border
The commercial result was global and immediate. Equals reached number one in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Lithuania and Scotland. Canadian listeners were part of that first wave, continuing a run in which every Sheeran studio album has topped the Canadian chart, and the album’s singles stayed in Canadian radio rotation well into 2022. Reviews at the time were mixed, with critics praising his sonic experimentation while debating the production polish, but the audience verdict was never in doubt.
Heard today, the album also marks the point where the mathematics series stopped being a growth chart and became a life record. The earlier symbol albums tracked an ascent, bigger rooms, bigger choruses, bigger numbers. Equals keeps the choruses but points them at first times, slow motion love, a child’s lullaby and a friend who is gone, and its five singles succeeded without changing that centre of gravity.
Five years on, the Equals 5th anniversary is a useful moment to hear the album as what Sheeran said it was: a coming of age record made by an artist whose life had changed completely since the symbol series began. Play “Visiting Hours” and “Bad Habits” back to back this week and the whole design is right there, grief and glitter on the same tracklist, sequenced by the same hand.
