"I'm a Mess" is a song recorded by English singer-songwriter

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran ( ; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

for his second studio album, '' x'' (2014). It features production from frequent collaborator

Jake Gosling Jake Nathan Gosling is an English record producer and songwriter. Best known for his production work for English singer Ed Sheeran, he has also been credited on releases for acts including Lady Gaga, The Libertines, James Bay, Shawn Mendes, A ...

. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number 72 and rose to number 49 due to strong download sales.

Writing and production

Following the release of his debut studio album, '' +'', in 2011, Sheeran started writing material for his next release. Instead of rush-run and launch an album the next year, the singer decided to take time and focus on writing material that would help expand his career in the United States, like fellow British musician

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (; born 5 May 1988) is an English singer-songwriter. Regarded as a British cultural icon, icon, she is known for her mezzo-soprano vocals and sentimental songwriting. List of awards and nominations received by Adele, ...

and band

Coldplay Coldplay are a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey (band m ...

. "I'm a Mess" premiered on 22 June 2014 via

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

, a day before the release of '' ×'', his second album in the United Kingdom and the United States. The track together with "

Thinking Out Loud "Thinking Out Loud" is a song by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran recorded for his second studio album, '' ×'' (2014). It was written by Sheeran and Amy Wadge, and produced by frequent collaborator Jake Gosling. It was released in the US ...

" were the last songs he wrote for ''×'' and were inspired by his then-girlfriend, Athina Andrelos. On 16 July 2014, during the album unveiling in a room in RAK Studios, he noted that he wrote "I'm a Mess" while he was in the shower. In an interview with the ''

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation in New Zealand ...

'', he described "I'm a Mess" as him being in a bad situation after he hurt a person, "I think it's important to stay double-sided. I'm very aware I have a lot of flaws too and I think I wear them on my sleeve with this album." Talking to

News.com.au News.com.au (stylised in all lowercase) is an Australian website owned by News Corp Australia. It had 9.6 million unique readers in April 2019 and covers national and international news, lifestyle, travel, entertainment, technology, finance an ...

, he identified the song as "fairly self-explanatory" and recalled, "'I’m a Mess' was definitely written at my lowest point. It actually turned out a lot nicer than what was going on at the time, the lyrics aren’t too mental. That came at the end of a lot of things meeting. After that I was fine. Writing that song sorted everything out." Sheeran said that "I'm a Mess" is his favourite track from ''×''. The production of "I'm a Mess" was done by Sheeran's regular collaborator,

and was recorded at his

Sticky Studios Sticky Studios is an independent music recording studio located in Windlesham, Surrey. The studio is owned by music producer, songwriter, remixer, manager and publisher Jake Gosling. Sticky Studios is most notable for its work with artists such as ...

in Windlesham, Surrey. Gosling together with Geoff Swan served as the song's

engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while consider ...

while William Hicks did the vocal editing and provided additional vocals.

Mark "Spike" Stent Mark "Spike" Stent (born 3 August 1965) is an English record producer and mixing engineer who has worked with many international artists including Madonna, Marshmello, U2, Beyoncé, Björk, Depeche Mode, Echo & the Bunnymen, Grimes, Ed Sheeran, ...

mixed the track at Mixsuite UK whilst Stuark Hawkos mastered it at Metropolis Mastering in London. All the

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

and

instrumentation Instrumentation is a collective term for measuring instruments, used for indicating, measuring, and recording physical quantities. It is also a field of study about the art and science about making measurement instruments, involving the related ...

was provided by Sheeran, Gosling and Chris Leonard. A live version of "I'm a Mess" was released as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

on the 7" release of "Thinking Out Loud".

Composition

"I'm a Mess" is a

pop song Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, '' The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock'' (Cambridge: Cambridg ...

with

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

influences and a length of four minutes and five seconds. Its instrumentation included

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

notes, backing vocals and a beating

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

. According to

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sony Music Publishing LLC (formerly Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is an American music publisher. Responsible for publishing the largest quantity of music, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021, it is part of Sony ...

's digital sheet music for the song, "I'm a Mess" is composed in the key of

C♯ minor C-sharp minor is a minor scale based on C, with the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of four sharps. The C-sharp natural minor scale is: Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are ...

and set in

common time A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates the ...

signature, and has a

groove Groove or Grooves may refer to: Music * Groove (music) * Groove (drumming) * The Groove (band), an Australian rock/pop band of the 1960s * The Groove (Sirius XM), a US radio station * Groove 101.7FM, a former Perth, Australia, radio station ...

of 140

beats per minute Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of in ...

. Sheeran's vocals span from the low note of B_b3 to the high note of B_b5. Neil McCormick of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' described "I'm a Mess" as an "edgy, rocky drama", whilst according to Jason Lipshutz of ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Sheeran uses his "classic folk voice and sensibility" to deliver the song's lyrics.

MTV News MTV News was the news production division of MTV. The service was available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network and an online news team. In 2016, MTV refreshed the MTV News brand to compete with the likes of BuzzFeed and ...

' Emily Blake noted that the stripped-down production of the song helps the focus to be on Sheeran's voice. She further elaborated, "like most of his folk-leaning pop numbers, it’s a track that makes you feel like Sheeran’s singing just to you" and " when his voice comes down to a near whisper — making the whole thing that much more intimate." According to Caitlin White of the same publication, "I'm a Mess" is a "lovelorn song" which shows a different side of Sheeran; instead of being brokenhearted, "he’s the one that messed up". He is "self-reflective" and "self-critical" with one of the verses contain lyrics as, "And oh, I’ve only caused you pain" and the

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...

features the line, "Easy baby, maybe I’m a liar". ''Billboard''s Colin Stutz concluded, "Sheeran's intimate voice carries over simple guitar strokes as he describes a night of loneliness and longing that erupts with fiery passion."

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''×''. Locations *Recorded at

, Windlesham,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

*Mixed at Mixsuite UK *Mastered at Metropolis Mastering, London Personnel *

Songwriting A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

– Ed Sheeran *

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

– Jake Gosling *

Engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

– Jake Gosling, Geoff Swan *Vocal editing – William Hicks * Mixing –

Mastering engineer Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source ...

– Stuart Hawkos *

Programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

and

– Ed Sheeran, Chris Leonard, Jake Gosling *Additional vocals – William Hicks

Charts

Certifications

References

External links

Ed Sheeran - I'm A Mess (x Acoustic Sessions)
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Ed Sheeran - I'm A Mess (Live From Wembley Stadium)
on YouTube {{authority control 2014 songs Ed Sheeran songs Song recordings produced by Jake Gosling Songs written by Ed Sheeran