Album reviews: Ed Sheeran, Gerr Walsh, ABBA

A pop superstar, a Dublin singer/songwriter and a quartet of Swedish legends are reviewed this week

Abba: your seasonal party soundtrack has just landed

POP

Ed Sheeran

= (Asylum Records)

Ed Sheeran is now at the point where he can churn out song after song and not care whether it’s criticised by you, me, or the dogs in the street. When you’ve sold more than 150 million records in the space of a decade, you’re bound to be impervious to expectations and simply carry on with what you feel like doing. So it is with his fourth studio album, which from the truly woeful (Sandman) to the quite gorgeous (The Joker and the Queen) is as formulaic as it is efficient. ***