Meet ed’s new crooning partner

his wife. “I’m stickin’ with my baby, for sure,” he sings on Cross Me. On Put It All on Me, he admits: “Having my woman there is good for my soul.” Missing home is a continual theme.

He does get frisky for someone not Mrs. Ed Sheeran on another fun track South of the Border, a kind of US cousin to his Galway Girl. He and Camila Cabello celebrate a lass with “brown eyes, caramel thighs” who makes him cry out (OK, a little cringingly) “te amo, mami.” Finally, Cardi B storms in to play up the double entendre of the title and announce: “I think that Ed got a lil’ jungle fever.”

A few of the guests elevate Ed Sheeran has an unusual singing partner. Strangely, it happens to be Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa, according to tech website CNET. To make Sheeran and Alexa sing, users simply have to ask Alexa to duet with Sheeran and she immediately breaks into the singer’s hit I Don’t Care and the two start to trade lines. “Hey, Ed, here’s a reminder,” Alexa begins. “It’s time for the party, let’s go.” And you can hear Alexa’s robotic voice takeover and sing alongside the Shape of You hitmaker. The original song features Justin Bieber though.

some songs – Stormzy and YEBBA, among them – but there are a few underwhelming tracks, including the Sheeran-ella Mai union on Put It All on Me and the Bieber song.

For the last track, Sheeran, Mars and Chris Stapleton – just

take a moment to wrap your head around that stunning trio – get into a Led Zeppelin groove with BLOW, a headbanger awash in sensual imagery. “Pull my trigger/let me blow your mind.”

Too late. Our mind was blown a few tracks ago.