In the summer of 2017, “Shape of You” was as inescapable as coronavirus in 2020 (and, to be honest, even as inescapable as it is au moment). There wasn’t a restaurant, clothing store, club or overall public space one could go to without hearing it. Ear plugs would have been essential to anyone trying to evade the pop juggernaut. Even though it was initially released in January, the song’s clout carried over into the summer season with its satyr-esque xylophone, which, for whatever reason, compelled (white) people to act their most buck wild.
“A club isn’t the best place to find a lover/So the bar is where I go,” Sheeran both declares and advises other men looking for the same. Though it’s a rather notorious piece of misogynistic lore that “nice girls” won’t be found at the bar—only whores and hoochies. Maybe that’s why Sheeran opted to avoid actually setting any scenes in such a milieu, instead taking the phrase “shape of you” into a workout-oriented realm as most of the video takes place in a boxing gym. Jennie Pegouskie plays Sheeran’s love interest, and when he sees her training there as well, a spark is ignited. Or rather, a concussion is potentially given as Jennie accidentally opens her locker door onto Sheeran’s face. But it’s fine, because it leads to them getting food together. And while Sheeran might have touted, “You and me are thrifty, so go all you can eat,” the only one who seems to be abiding by that is Sheeran himself as he stuffs his face with wings and fries, while Jennie sticks to a salad in yet another cliché of the “perfect” woman (who obviously has to eat daintily to maintain the ideal “shape of her”).
The relatively dreary cinematography of the video overall is in contrast to the brightness and levity Sheeran depicts in his lyrics about a theoretical one-night stand turning into real love. While the backdrop of it all might seem decidedly “London” in its oppressive grayness, the video was actually shot in Seattle and directed by frequent Sheeran collaborator Jason Koenig (also a frequent collaborator of Macklemore’s if that tells you anything). Interestingly, Sheeran was still twenty-five at the time of the song’s release, an age that meant he, theoretically, should have been more ready to continue partying whilst he “could” (not that the same ageist limitations are put on men as they are on women who approach thirty). Instead, “Shape of You” is all about parlaying debauchery into wholesomeness. Even if it was the anthem of fuckboys and douchebags in clubland for the majority of 2017-18. Enter “Bad Habits,” which seems to be the result and unwitting sequel to what happens after “Shape of You.”
One minute, you’re a charming “good time boy” still in your mid-twenties, the next you’re some creepy older guy in the club still trying to prowl for younger women. And even though “Bad Habits” is intended to be a reflection on Sheeran’s twenties, it comes across as a cautionary tale about what happens in the wake of “Shape of You” folly. Particularly if, as expected, Sheeran ended up splitting from the girl whose love was “handmade” for “somebody like [him].” In the aftermath, what can a man-child do apart from delve further into the bad habits that predated his ephemeral bout with monogamy?
Upending the statement, “Nothing good happens after two,” Sheeran maintains on “Bad Habits” that, from his perspective, “Nothing happens after two.” But once said hour hits, things can really get poppin’. Especially if one is a vampire, the literal and metaphorical being that Sheeran embodies in the music video directed by Dave Meyers. “Every time the sun goes down, I let you take control,” Sheeran muses to his more diabolical and vampiric alter ego—the one most people would have a hard time envisioning based on the outer shell he presents. And, speaking of that shell, it’s one that “Nighttime Ed” catches and discards at a certain point in the video as it gets ejected from a taxi that Nighttime Ed himself causes to crash. As though Nighttime Ed is far too overpowering to let any traces of his “benevolent” daytime self intervene in the iniquities of the night. You might say he’s like Mr. Hyde in that way, overtaking Dr. Jekyll.
This evolution into a full-on monster speaks to a general warning to all “good time boys” in their twenties who still carry on in this manner well-past the decade that gives everyone (but especially men) “a pass” for grotesque behavior. Beyond that, it’s difficult to defend someone with the excuse, “Oh, they’re just figuring themselves out” or “It’s just a phase, everybody goes through it.” Least of all someone wearing 2012 era Kesha-inspired glitter eye makeup paired with a suit that Joker would wear if he preferred pink to red.
In this way, Sheeran might just be more unwittingly feminist than he is aware of as he seeks to iterate the same message to men that is constantly given to women about persisting with partying past an unspoken “expiration date.” Unfortunately, there are still far more admonitory examples of the aging party girl than the aging party boy (see: Zelda Fitzgerald, Edie Sedgwick, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Lindsay Lohan and, of course, Lexi Featherston from Sex and the City and Robyn from Flack).
“I only know how to go too far,” Sheeran laments. But those who continue for longer down his path will soon find there is such a place as too far, from which arises the point of no return. Perhaps this is why it’s telling that Sheeran holds a rose in his long-nailed hand during the intro hair salon portion of the video. For, as Belle from Beauty and the Beast can tell us, there’s always a race against the clock with that “bloom is off the rose” analogy becoming all too real.
