“Take Me Back to London” by Ed Sheeran (ft. Stormzy)
The theme of Ed Sheeran’s “Take Me Back to London” is primarily centered on Sheeran and Stormzy’s affinity for London. Or put differently, they are both from the United Kingdom and expressing love for their home country by stating a desire to get back to its capital, London.
But only Ed Sheeran sticks faithfully to this topic in his solo verse. It is primarily based on the idea that he has been away for a while, having “travelled a million miles” and is looking forward to “heading back to London town”. And once he touches down, Ed will “hit (his) friends up” – as in get in contact with his homeys – and “go straight to the pub”.
Meanwhile Stormzy’s solo verse reads more like the way a rapper would rep his hometown. He does not big up his ‘hood per se as much as the fact that he has a “shooter”, as in a hitman, on call. And he brings it all home by giving a shoutout to the “South London boys” (Stormzy is from Croydon, a town in the southern part of London) and basically advising the listener not the rub such individuals the wrong way.
The final verse features Sheeran and Stormzy performing in unison. It features them giving shoutout to particular aspects of British culture (i.e. the Brit Awards and Glastonbury Festival) as well as concludes with the sentiment “there ain’t no place like home”. Despite this, its primary topic is not London or the UK. Rather for the most part it features Stormzy bragging about his lyrical skill and Sheeran commenting on the emotional sacrifices they had to make to reach the top.
So once again, the main topic of this song is the artists going “back to London”, as in their hometown. Put differently, they are both repping London and on a larger scale the United Kingdom. And in that regard, they come off like longtime homeys who are bound to drop even more tracks bigging up their ‘hood in the near future.
This isn’t the pair’s first collaboration!
Ed and rapper Stormzy have collaborated before prior to working on “Take Me Back to London”. For instance, Stormzy did a remix of Sheeran’s 2017 track “Shape of You”, which they performed together at the 2017 Brit Awards. During that session they also collaborated on Ed Sheeran’s track “Castle on the Hill”.
Writers and Producers of “Take Me Back to London”
Both Stormzy and Ed served as co-writers of “Take Me Back to London” along with the below songwriters:
- Shellback
- Michael Omari Jr.
- Max Martin
- Fred Gibson (who is one of the track’s producers)
The song’s other producers are Skrillex and Kenny Beats.
Release Date of “Take Me Back to London”
Asylum Records and Atlantic Records released “Take Me Back to London” as the fourth song on the playlist of Ed Sheeran’s hit album No. 6 Collaborations Project. This happened on 12 July 2019. FYI, this track didn’t come out as one of No. 6‘s singles.
Official Singles of No. 6 Collaborations Project
No.6 Collaborations Project (which is Ed’s fourth studio album) was supported by the following major singles:
- “I Don’t Care”
- “Antisocial”
- “Best Part of Me”
- “Cross Me”
- “Blow”
- “Beautiful People“
