Feelings… nothing more than feelings…

[Video]
[4.57]

Ian Mathers: SHOULDA BEEN MOUTH CLOSED, EDDY BOY
[3]

Joshua Lu: I would say I admire the sentiment in “Eyes Closed,” but I’m not actually sure I do. As a tribute to his late friends, the song nails the melancholy dance vibe, but the song is also mostly about moving on and forcing Ed to go out drinking and (literally) prance forward in life. Any direct references to the subject matter are dispelled through vague lyricism that lets a listener assumer this is just about life after a breakup. A more generous reading would be about how his desire to appear strong in the face of such loss forces him to painfully hide his tears, but that’s more generosity than I’m usually willing to afford him.
[3]

Hannah Jocelyn: When a pop song has multiple producers, it shouldn’t matter if the final product sounds good. Here, it’s possible to guess who contributed what sounds: acoustic guitar riffs and muted pianos from Aaron Dessner, 808s and vocoders from Fred Again, “ay-ay-ay” hooks likely from Max Martin/Shellback. I imagine Warner sent the Swedes in when they realized the album was amounting to mockbuster Folklore, but Martin seems like he wasn’t sure how to fix it either. It’s as if the four dudes (assuming Shellback exists as a person and not a Malignant-esque alternate form of Max Martin) didn’t communicate at all, and nobody heard each others’ contributions until the mixing stage; that’s probably what happened! These are all professionals that sound aimless, and at the center is Sheeran, giving it his all. The lyrics about the banality of grief just wind up as banal as everything else, especially when paired with a melody that sounds like “Everything Is Awesome.”
[4]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Even Aaron Dessner, Fred Again.., Max Martin, and Shellback together cannot prevent this from reeking of the most Ed of Sheeran-isms.  
[2]

Katherine St Asaph: I dislike and resent the conventional wisdom that pop polish always destroys a song’s emotional resonance. I also dislike “The A Team” (which is not unpolished). But “Eyes Closed” would better convey its grief if it sounded more like that, rather than the exact median of adult pop radio from 2012 to now.
[4]

Will Adams: In fairness, this often is how grief takes form. A dull, inscrutable ache that makes itself known even though all signs should point to everything is okay and I feel fine. Major key chords, a friendly mid-tempo groove, an ay-ay-ay-ay hook meant to perk up your ears. But you still feel bad. So, conceptually, “Eyes Closed” is brilliant. Sonically, however… still feels bad.
[4]

Brad Shoup: There is a shimmy to this, maybe a little shoulder shaking in his bedroom. I’m glad everyone involved agreed to rendering loss with a little propulsion, even if he navigates it so cleanly. It does make me wonder when we’re getting a Sheeran musical.
[6]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: I appreciate that this sounds delusionally happy, but it moves into a territory that’s less “fighting through the pain” than “uncanny CCM radio hit that has no idea what human emotion is.”
[2]

Alex Clifton: I wish I could be glib and snarky about this song, because something about Ed Sheeran makes me want to be a bit mean. It’s not the best song about death I’ve ever heard — “Marjorie,” “Casimir Pulaski Day,” and “Someone Great” are all better-written. “Eyes Closed” is nothing groundbreaking in terms of revelations about grief. But my mum died last October and I still can’t figure out how to discuss (or feel) the complexities of grief. I discuss my mum’s death with finger guns and irreverence in an absurd laugh-so-you-don’t-cry, things-are-kind-of-meaningless way, but naming the alienation, unreality, and bone-deep sadness that comes with grief has eluded me (or maybe I’ve eluded it to avoid falling down an emotional rabbit hole). A lot of people have said stuff about grief in much smarter, elegant ways than I (and frankly Sheeran) have. Yet there’s something simple and honest about “Eyes Closed” that makes it okay to exist with the feeling. You don’t have to get too poetic with it. The plaintive way he sings “the truth is now you’re gone and life just goes on” got me. It’s earnest, and while Sheeran’s work occasionally veers too saccharine or sentimental, here the directness hits. It’s also the rare song that seems to work well using generalities in the lyrics; it allows you to reflect your experiences onto those lines, letting lots of personal stories exist within the confines of one song. I’m still learning how to live a life without my mum. I suppose I’m also learning how to like Ed Sheeran. One of those things warrants more detailed conversations with my therapist.  
[7]

Scott Mildenhall: At times it seemed impossible, but this sounds like Ed Sheeran with his guard down. More than an impression of emotion, it feels like expression — and that’s a product, ironically, of uncharacteristically tight construction. “Eyes Closed” is a vignette framed by the bigger picture, its emotional peaks and troughs folding from verse into chorus and back with human precision. The reality is palpable, because for once he has represented it dextrously.
[8]

Lauren Gilbert: I resent Aaron Dessner a great deal for being the reason I genuinely like an entire Ed Sheeran album, but at least the singles are still pretty bad. My love for “Dusty” will remain my secret; I’ll still groan every time an Ed song comes on at a bar.
[4]

Alfred Soto: On social media Jody Rosen castigated the legion of Ed Sheeran, uh, skeptics for ignoring if not dismissing the thatch-haired fool’s melodic gifts. Other artists hear them. I do too. It’s the conceits that irritate me. If you dance with your eyes closed over plucked guitar, you will bump into a wall if you’re lucky, into someone else if not, and if you knock over my beer I’m punching the thatch out of your hair.
[3]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: This is the most I’ve ever enjoyed an Ed Sheeran song since that weird moment where he wanted to do songs with PnB Rock and Travis Scott for completely inscrutable reasons. It’s a sturdily written song, somehow avoiding falling into the deep wells of mawkish, slightly incoherent sentimentality that his work has always risked. I’m absolutely never going to listen to this after I finish writing this blurb, though.
[4]

Nortey Dowuona: I have done a 180 on the Ed Sheeran Is Wack Committee for a few reasons. For one, the reason he sucked was because being a pop star — like fellow critical punching bag Fucking Drake — was a curse that drove him to make the worst music of his life yet made him astonishingly rich. Unlike Fucking Drake, he accepted his fate and position. Whenever he pops up on a younger artist’s song, like “Peru,” he gives them their space and delivers. Whenever he is required to perform, like on Tiny Desk, he does a great job. When he has to wrench out your heartstrings, on “Overpass Graffiti,” he does. When he has to joke, like with Sundae Conversations, he ably handles it. He has chosen to enjoy his massive stardom and use it to make complicated art, as well as pop hits. He puts on folks who came up after him and supports them. At every turn, he chose the sincere choice, so I can’t hold him in any contempt. (Even the drill remix of “Bad Habits” is actually good!!?) He seems actually know who he is and be fine with it. Tellingly, on this song, he sounds vulnerable and frail, struggling with his grief and despair and accepting it, accepting that since this person changed his life so deeply, he can’t just block them out, he can’t forget. His eyes can slam closed but he’s still seeing his friend.
[10]