Ed Sheeran Announces Release Date for Follow-up to ‘+’

Ed Sheeran's sophomore album has a release date! The follow-up to his smashing debut '+' will come out on February 17, 2014. That's a long way off, but the ginger star says he needs that much time to complete the record.

“My second album has taken full shape recently,” he tells Noise11.com. “I don’t know if there will be any collaborations on it yet. I have a name for it but I can’t tell you the name just yet. But it doesn’t start with a letter."

Sheeran confirms one song title, 'Photograph,' which he calls "the big one on the album." The singer-songwriter recently moved to Nashville to finish the project, saying, "Nashville is wicked. It's like a proper music community but it's also quintessentially American."

So what are Sheeran fans to do for the next 11 months? Surely they can come to his live gigs — he's opening for Taylor Swift — and hear some of the new songs, right? Nope, Ed says.

"Coldplay do that and big bands can ease in new songs to their set, but my fans are so viral that the moment that I’d play a new song every one of them would hear it. They are on YouTube and Twitter, and I think there should be some surprise. I don’t want everyone knowing what the record is before they get it. I want them to listen to it first."

Watch the Ed Sheeran 'Small Bump' Video