Blogocentric Formulations

Castle On The Hill

DAY 11

"Castle On The Hill"
by Ed Sheeran

I don't think I'll ever be able to look at Ed Sheeran the same way after he got a ginormous lion tattoo on his chest and then proceeded to tattoo pretty much the rest of his body, but the guy sure can write a song. He has a lot of great songs, but this one for some reason really sticks out to me, and is the one I find myself revisiting most often. The song is about his hometown and there's definitely a bit of a nostalgic feel to the lyrics which a lot of listeners can relate to, I think.

One of the things that always amazes me about Ed Sheeran's songs is that they're not particularly lyrical in the traditional sense. There aren't a lot of rhyming words or even large sections of chorus or refrains. A lot of his songs (including this one) are simply stories he's telling set to music. I'm sure that's part of what makes his music so popular; he's able to transport listeners to a place where he tells them an actual story with a point of view. "Galway Girl" is another one of his songs that really lays out a narrative in a catchy and interesting way.

Whatever he's doing, Ed Sheeran is clearly doing something right... he earned an estimated $110 million in 2018, which makes him the third-highest-paid musical act of last year behind only U2 and Coldplay. That's more than Beyonce and Lady Gaga combined, and well ahead of the likes of Taylor Swift and Katy Perry.

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Written for "The Soundtrack of Your Life"