HEAR THIS: Ed Sheeran

British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is a pop musician, but he sure writes awfully compelling tunes. At their core, the songs on his full-length debut “+” are based around Sheeran’s lovely tenor, a guitar, and lyrics about grief, self-doubt, homelessness, and desperation. But the production is full and clean, glossy even.

Sheeran’s styles range from more classic folk (on the gorgeous and soulful “Small Bump”) to rock and R&B on the driven, string-assisted “Give Me Love”) to even hip-hop-influenced (on the sad-sack, reggae-grooving “Drunk”). “+” is a strong representation of what makes Sheeran so popular, reaching the #5 spot on the Billboard Top 200, yet he manages to bring intimacy to a large scale.