Give Me Love

Album: + (2011)
Charted: 18
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Songfacts®:

  • Sheeran told Q magazine about the laying down of +: "I started recording in January in a friend's garden shed in Suffolk. I wanted to keep that organic lo-fi feel. I've got the rest of my life to make an album in a swish studio. This time round I wanted to stay true to the sound that's got me this far."
  • This song came through late in the recording process. Sheeran told Q: "I went in with pretty much all the songs written, but a couple popped out while we were recording. The last track, 'Give Me Love,' for example. That's an important song for me. It's got a more fleshed-out sound, which I think is where I'm headed in future."
  • The song was used in lingerie company Victoria's Secret's Michael Bay-directed Love is Heavenly commercial. "I'm happy having half-naked girls dancing to one of my tunes," said Sheeran to AOL Music with a laugh. "It actually works. I don't know, maybe [my music] just suits half-naked women wandering about. I think it does!"
  • Speaking with Artist Direct, Sheeran said this was, "one of those songs where you get very inspired by a situation and it falls out of you in 20 minutes. It was a very easy song to write." He added: "It's about a relationship that fell apart and you're asking for it to be put back together. Most people get to a point where they drink themselves into a dark corner in that situation. It's that point of view."
  • The song's music video was directed by Emil Nava, and features Isabel Lucas portraying a cupid walking around a city making people fall in love. The Australian actress is best known for roles as Gwen in the Steven Spielberg World War II miniseries, The Pacific, and as Alice in the movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
  • Eminem's 8 Mile was a seminal movie for Sheeran, who became fascinated with rap battles and freestyle rapping. He started developing his own freestyle skills, coming up with lyrics on the spot and not writing them down. That's what he did on "Give Me Love."

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