Illuminate mixes professions of romantic agony like “Mercy” (where a quietly hummed hook explodes into crashing drums), with nice-boy valentines like “Treat You Better” and bedroom come ons like “Lights On.” Two-thirds of the album is produced by Sheeran collaborator Jake Gosling, and deploys Sheeran’s mix of familiar pop vestments (electric guitar solos that float with John Mayer weightlessness, gently worried vocals that owe as much to Justin Timberlake as to gospel or R&B).
Rollingstone
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