He's not a rapper, he's a singer with a flow
We were just kids when we fell in love... with Ed Sheeran
A few weeks ago, Ed Sheeran shared an Instagram account called @teddysoldphone, where he posted photos, text messages, notes app screenshots and emails from the iPhone he turned off in 2015. Apparently when he got sued (lol) he needed to turn the phone back on to hand over to some lawyers, but not before being smacked with a wave of nostalgia. This all turned into a track called—get ready for it—”Old Phone.” The song is pretty awful, but the Instagram account is a rich early-2010s time capsule, including photos of YOUNG Taylor Swift and Harry Styles (not together, sadly), the ice bucket challenge and videos that were definitely intended for Vine. Bad song, amazing marketing.
Fast forward a couple weeks on one of those scary-warm spring days that indicate global warming will kill us all. I was hanging out with a few FONCs (Friends of New Crush—you should know this!) on FONC Olivia’s rooftop. The FONCs and I don’t remember how or why this happened (a healthy amount of wine had surely been consumed), but we decided to play Sheeran’s “Give Me Love,” the 8-minute, 44-second final track of “+.” The song famously closes with Ed singing the traditional Irish/Scottish song “The Parting Glass” over a choir-like sea of hums.
(Side note: if she’s between the ages of 25-35 and knows all the words to “The Parting Glass,” there’s a good chance she's not well-versed in British folk hymns. She just loved Ed in 2011.)
By the time Ed sang, “Goodnight and joy be with you all,” we were nearly weeping in the dark? A couple of girls returned from the bathroom to find us this way. And then the deep dive began.
Jordan asked us to play “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You” to hear one of Ed’s most iconic lyrics: “They say I’m up and coming like I’m fucking in an elevator.” Annabel revealed she played Ed Sheeran for Lydia the first night they hooked up. I outed myself as being able to sing almost every word of “Don’t.” When Olivia asked, “Wait, you guys fuck with ‘Castle on the Hill’?” I knew this was a party.
“I’m not a rapper, I’m a singer with a flow” is how Ed Sheeran introduces himself on the song “Take It Back.” But to me he is so much more than that. I got into his music at 16. He gave off this authentic, underdog quality that was only enhanced by how he performed onstage by himself with just a guitar and a loop pedal. I had never heard lyrics so romantic. A few examples:
“I could do without a tan on my left hand where my fourth finger meets my knuckle”
“I wanna hold your heart in both hands, not watch it fizzle like a coke can”
“I know you’ll say that I’m the only one, but I know God made another one of me to love you better than I ever will”
“I’ll surrender up my heart and swap it for yours”
“So I take you to the beach and walk along the sand, and I'll make you a heart pendant with a pebble held in my hand, and I'll carve it like a necklace, so the heart falls where your chest is, and now a piece of me is a piece of the beach and it falls just where it needs to be and rests peacefully, so you just need to breathe to feel my heart against yours now…”
And these are just from his first album!
Maybe this is all what started my unrealistic expectations that all men should worship the ground I walk upon… I digress.
In the same way I still enjoyed Ed’s “old phone” video that featured DJ Khaled saying, “Another one,” I still think Ed Sheeran’s music holds up—at least if you were into him during those early days. And that’s why I’m introducing New Crush’s very first starter pack playlist, “The New Crush Guide to Ed Sheeran,” featuring just over 2 hours of all the Ed Sheeran you should know.
You might notice that I don’t include much from after 2017’s “÷” and that’s because things really fell off with Ed after that. Or maybe that’s when I learned that men aren’t supposed to be that obsessed with me (although that’s still debatable). The one exception is “Shivers,” a song so unsettling that you will listen to it again and again in order to confirm that, yes, this red-headed, 30-something Englishman really is singing, “Ooh, I love it when you do it like that.” Enjoy.
❤️ LOVE NOTES ❤️
Last Monday night, FONC Abbey and I saw the final show of Japanese Breakfast’s Brooklyn Paramount residency. The set design was beautiful, especially as Michelle Zauner sang in a shell, wearing all white like a lil pearl. But the real highlight was when she brought out THE Donna Lewis to sing “I Love You Always Forever.” It was easily one of my top live-music highlights of 2025—so unexpected, so euphoric, so special.
On Friday night, I saw Fontaines D.C. at Hammerstein Ballroom. They are a punk band of adorable Irish boys who rock very hard, but often sing wholesome lyrics such as “Maybe romance is a place for me and you” and “Tell your mother you love her and go out of your way for others.” Every hot man I know likes this band, and Friday’s audience demographic verified that. (The same thing is true of male fans of MJ Lenderman and Mk.gee.) I later remembered that the rest of the men in New York were watching the Knicks game just a few blocks away from the venue, and Herald Square was the worst place for me to be that night.
Bandcamp started their own substack. Many brands and retailers have started substacks (The Real Real, American Eagle, etc) but I’m curious what this will look like, especially since Bandcamp produces editorial content for their site.
Taylor Swift would very much like to be excluded from this narrative. She got dragged into the Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni drama, and her lawyers requested that a subpoena for Taylor to turn in all communications between her and Blake be discarded. “This document subpoena is designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case,” the spokesperson added Friday.
The Lorde Rolling Stone cover story had a LOT of quotable, WTF moments. Maybe too many. I learned more about her West Village apartment than I did about her new album. Anyway, this one was particularly odd.
Remember when I wrote out every collab Bon Iver participated in for his latest album? Yesterday he announced ANOTHER ONE: a first-of-its-kind partnership with the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.
🔥 Old Flames 🔥
I nearly forgot to do this for May. Almost every month, I make a playlist full of songs I’m loving. Once the month is over, I start a new one. This has allowed me to create monthly time capsules, and now I’m sharing them with you!
Last May I was listening to… “Risk” by Gracie Abrams, which became my most-played song of the year (I’m sorry); “Nineteen” by Charly Bliss; Billie Eilish’s last record “Hit Me Hard and Soft.”
In May 2023 I was listening to… Joy Oladokun, “Hits Different” by Taylor Swift, “Time Ain’t Accidental” by Jess Williamson, Hannah Jadagu
In May 2022 I was listening to… “Sleep Tight” by Holly Humberstone (my fave song by her), Tomberlin, “Home By Now” by MUNA.
In May 2021 I was listening to… “hollywood sucks” by Kennyhoopla which was my most-played song of 2021! The last time a man ever earned that title…”Bodybag” by Chloe Moriondo, “In the Stone” by the now defunct band The Goon Sax, “Don’t Go Puttin Wishes In My Head” by Torres, “Like I Used To” by Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten….Ok I slayed this playlist.
In May 2020 I was listening to… This one is called MAY INDOORS. I was regressing in my childhood home and became re-obsessed with “7 Things” by Miley Cyrus, “Kiss With a Fist” by Florence and the Machine and “Anything But Ordinary” by Avril Lavigne. Also “I Know Alone” by Haim (topical) and “Who Are You” by Diet Cig.
In May 2019 I was listening to… “Too Much” by Carly Rae Jepsen, “Heavy Heavy” by Pom Pom Squad, “Young Enough” by Charly Bliss (perfect perfect perfect song), “Milky Way” by Long Neck.
There are only two things you actually need to know about me. My name is Natalia and my favorite podcast is Las Culturistas. They end every episode with a song. I end every newsletter with a song.
I’m not proud of this, but my new lazy-girl listening activity has been choosing a random song I feel like hearing and going to its “radio” setting on Spotify. A couple weeks ago I listened to Veruca Salt’s “Volcano Girls” radio for hours, and it eventually brought me to That dog. I’ve listened to this band plenty of times, but for whatever reason, they clicked on this listen. I love a song that’s about listening to music. I love a song about flirting. I love a song about a city. I love when a woman sings in a monotone. And “Minneapolis” has it all. Sometimes the Spotify algorithm is just okay. There isn’t a music video so enjoy the performance above.
Refuse to tolerate Shivers slander… U gotta learn the line dance then you will understand