Ed Sheeran returns with new song 'Afterglow'

Christmas came early for Ed Sheeran fans.

The 29-year-old singer dropped his new song "Afterglow" on Monday morning. "Hey guys. Afterglow is a song I wrote last year that I wanted to release for you. It's not the first single from the next album, it's just a song I love, and hope you love too. Enjoy !" he wrote to his social media followers. "Have a safe and happy festive break and New Year's. Back to dad land for me now, ciao x."

"Stop the clocks, it's amazing / You should see the way the light dances off your head / A million colors of hazel, golden and red / Saturday morning is fading / The sun's reflected by the coffee in your hand / My eyes are caught in your gaze all over again," the new dad croons on the romantic track.

"We were love drunk, waiting on a miracle / Trying to find ourselves in the winter snow / So alone in love like the world had disappeared / Oh, I won't be silent and I won't let go / I will hold on tighter 'til the afterglow / And we'll burn so bright 'til the darkness softly clears."

Sheeran previously teased on Sunday that he'd have a "Christmas present" for fans "11 am GMT tomorrow" in an Instagram post, along with a Jackson Pollock-esque painting that it turns out he created himself.

Sheeran also posted a short video on his Instagram Stories featuring him with a guitar, perhaps hinting that he had new music to share. His last social media post came in September, when he announced the birth of his baby daughter with wife Cherry Seaborn.

"Afterglow" is his first single since last summer's "Take Me Back to London" with Stormzy.

The British musician released his last album No. 6 Collaborations Project in July 2019. In October of that year, his longtime manager said Sheeran was already working on his next project.

"He's already started writing and recording for what will be album five. We won't let anything come out that's substandard," Stuart Camp told the BBC. "We've done that on the previous two albums where we have to keep going until we absolutely know that the thing we come back with is undeniable."

Sheeran was most recently featured on Eminem's "Those Kinda Nights" from the rapper's January album Music to Be Murdered By.

Listen to Sheeran's new track above.

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