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| Length = | Label = | Producer = | Engineer = | Last album = ''The Slumdon Bridge'' (2012) | This album = ''x'' (2014) | Next album = | Misc = }} ''x'' (pronounced "multiply")〔 is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. It was released on 20 June 2014 in Australia and New Zealand,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ten things we learnt about Ed Sheeran on his visit )〕 and worldwide on 23 June through Asylum Records and Atlantic Records. The album received positive reviews from music critics. It has become an international success, peaking at number one in fifteen countries, while topping both the UK Albums Chart and the US ''Billboard'' 200. ''x'' also reached the top 5 in seven other countries and was the best selling album of 2014 in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the UK. Five singles were released from the album: "Sing", "Don't", "Thinking Out Loud", "Bloodstream" (a collaboration with Rudimental) and "Photograph". The lead single "Sing" was a major international success and became Sheeran's first UK number-one single and his second US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 top 20 hit (reaching number 13). The second single "Don't" was also a worldwide success, peaking at number 8 in the UK, and being Sheeran's first ever Hot 100 top 10, peaking at number 9. "Thinking Out Loud" was a sleeper hit in the UK, becoming Sheeran's second number-one single after 19 weeks in the chart, and has been certified 3× Platinum, with sales of over 1 million copies in the UK. It also became his highest charting US single to date, peaking at number 2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and has been certified 4x Platinum, with sales of over 4 million copies in the US alone. "Thinking Out Loud" became an international success, peaking at number one in 12 countries, and the top five in 12 more. The remix to "Bloodstream" peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the fourth-consecutive single from ''x'' to hit the top 10 in Sheeran's native country. "Photograph" was released as the album's fifth single, and gave Sheeran his fifth consecutive top ten single from the album in Australia and New Zealand, peaking at numbers 9 and 8, respectively. It was also an international success, peaking inside the top 10 in ten countries. In December 2014, Spotify named ''x'' the most-streamed album in the world for 2014, racking up more than 430 million streams for the year.〔("Ed Sheeran is Spotify's most-streamed artist of 2014" ). BBC. Retrieved 4 December 2014〕 ''x'' has been certified 8× Platinum in the UK with sales of over 2.4 million copies, making it one of the best selling albums in the history of the UK, and the fifth best-selling album of the decade in the UK.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ed Sheeran's X becomes one of the decade's best sellers )〕 It has also been certified 7× Platinum in Australia, 3× Platinum in Canada, 6× Platinum in New Zealand, and Platinum in the US, with sales of over 1.7 million copies in the US. To date, ''x'' has sold over 10 million copies worldwide and is the longest charting Top 10 album in the history of the United Kingdom.〔http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/ed-sheeran-x-album-chart-adele/〕 In 2015, ''x'' won the Brit Award for British Album of the Year, and at the 57th Grammy Awards it was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year. ==Background and recording== Around the time his debut album ''+'' was released in 2011, the first songs for Sheeran's second album were written, "One" being the album opener,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ed Sheeran's new single One recorded using whiskey barrel as an instrument )〕 and another which eventually became a bonus track.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ed Sheeran - 'Sing' Playback & YouTuber Q&A )〕 Sheeran wrote with Johnny McDaid from Snow Patrol in hotel rooms while supporting them on the North American leg of the band's Fallen Empires Tour in 2012.〔 He also wrote with Northern Irish singer/songwriter and frequent tourmate Foy Vance, penning multiple potential songs for the album. Sheeran decided against releasing his second album in 2012, deciding instead to follow in the footsteps of fellow British acts like Adele and One Direction who had "broken America". In Autumn 2013, Sheeran performed three sold out nights at Madison Square Garden, finishing two and a half years on tour to focus on recording his new album. In a behind the scenes tour video, it was revealed that he was in the studio with producers Rick Rubin and Pharrell Williams, who were later confirmed in interviews to be contributing towards the album. The album was due for release on 17 February 2014, but Sheeran got "the opportunity to work with Rick Rubin for two months, which () wasn't going to say no to," which led to a delay.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ed Sheeran Talks Working With Rick Rubin On New Album - Exclusive Interview )〕 Having written "hundreds" of songs, Sheeran entered the studio with Rubin and they cut that down to the 15 new songs that feature on the album, excluding "I See Fire", which was recorded separately and saw release on the soundtrack for ''The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.abbeyroad.com/News/Article/298/I-See-Fire-mixed-and-mastered-by-Abbey-Road-Studios )〕 Sheeran stated that he "started off making another acoustic record, and it turned into a neo-soul-funk record," due to the influence of working with producers like Rubin and Benny Blanco that "pulled () out of () comfort zone." Getting into the studio with Rubin to "rerecord all the songs" after two years of writing them made the songs sound "raw and interesting", at a time when Sheeran was getting tired of them,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Richard Wilkins interviews Ed Sheeran )〕 giving him a chance to "actually set up the album instead of just putting it out."〔 However, doing an entire album with Rubin "just wouldn't work on pop radio", so after working with Rubin he wrote the songs "I'm a Mess" and "Thinking Out Loud", both about his girlfriend at the time, with a different producer.〔 Jake Gosling, who co-wrote and produced the majority of Sheeran's debut album, has no writing credits on this album, whilst new collaborators include Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody and British dance act, Rudimental. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「X (Ed Sheeran album)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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