When Ed Sheeran declares that his upcoming album "-" is his most personal work ever, it doesn't sound extraordinary at first. After all, many artists let their innermost thoughts and fears flow into their music. But how much the musician from Halifax had to process in the last few months within a very short time is quite extraordinary. In early 2022, Ed Sheeran's pregnant wife was found to have a tumor that could not be treated until after the pregnancy. In addition, his good friend and business partner Jamal Edwards died at only 31 years old. And finally, the singer-songwriter had to defend himself in court against accusations that his biggest hit "Shape Of You" was plagiarized. All this within a month. The reaction to all these events is "-", the sixth album by Ed Sheeran. Actually, the artist had been collecting ideas for a purely acoustic album for ten years. But the events of recent times demanded a direct musical reappraisal. The 32-year-old comments: "As an artist, I saw only one way for me to credibly publish a work in this situation: it had to show unadulterated where I am right now and how I have to express myself at this point in my life. And that's exactly what this album does. It opens the trapdoor to my soul. For the first time, I'm not trying to make an album that people will like, I'm just putting out something that's honest and shows where I'm at in my adult life." To do that, Ed Sheeran retreated for weeks with Aaron Dessner to write new songs. The National's guitarist had also been instrumental on Taylor Swift's albums "Folklore" and "Evermore." Together, the two wrote 30 songs, 14 of which made it onto "-". The first single, "Eyes Closed," a thoughtful but catchy pop song, is about the loss of a friend and is obviously dedicated to Jamal Edwards. The haunting ballad "Boat" is representative of Ed Sheeran's return to his singer-songwriter roots. It seems that the musician has made the best of a difficult time and written an album that will mean as much to his fans as it does to him.