"The A Team" Ed Sheeran

Everybody loves a good tragedy once in a while; that's what's kept Romeo and Juliet alive in high school theaters across the country and propelled Adele to diamond sales of 21. So watch for the imminent success of Ed Sheeran's "The A Team," a delicate portrait of a woman's harrowing descent into drug addiction and prostitution. A hit in the singer-songwriter's native Britain last year, it is now taking off in the U.S., where the lilting melody and gritty subject matter have already pushed it toward the top ten of adult contemporary and rock radio. Wrapped in an inviting acoustic guitar riff, "A Team" is a stinging cipher, slowly revealing the depths of its grim reality. It's the best kind of downer: an unexpected sucker punch to the gut—and one that bruises all the more with knowledge of its inevitability. A