The Shape of Sentence, or, Yes, How You Say Things Matters: Ed Sheeran "The Shape of You"

So now I'm going to go from raving about an interesting deployment of the pronoun "you" to a really frustrating one in Ed Sheeran's "The Shape of You."

Now I know I'm going against popular taste here, as this song has billions of views on youtube and got an overwhelming amount of radio play, but I just can't stomach it. Most of the song is just unremarkable, but I really hate the central line of the song: "I'm in love with the shape of you." That phrase, "the shape of you," sounds really clunky.

What do I mean by "clunky" ? Well, yes, it is grammatically incorrect, but grammatical correctness is not really that important when it comes to lyrics. There are plenty of songs that mangle grammar and sound good while doing it. But its bad grammar does have something to do with the problem. For one, it just doesn't sound like anything anyone would say. From a grammatical standpoint, we can see that it should be "I'm in love with your shape," or maybe "I'm in love with the shape of your body." The lameness of these two options tells us why Sheeran's version sucks. "I'm in love with your shape" falls flat rhythmically; there is something to the rhythm of two beats followed by the stress on "love" and then another two beats and the stress on "shape," but even still the "of you" just feels rushed. I prefer the similar rhythm as it plays out in the line: "I'm in love with your body"

Contrasting these lines also highlights how unsexy the word "shape" is--its way too abstract and geometrical. We might as well say "I love your outline!" or "I love your profile!" Sure, "I'm in love with your body" is kind of trite and boring, but that didn't stop Sheeran from using it a ton of times too. Plus, part of the reason why I don't like the actual version is it feels incomplete, as if I keep expecting Sheeran to sing "I'm in love with the shape of your body," which feels more normal if perhaps too wordy for a pop song.

I will just trash a few other lines which, if not as prominent as the main offender, are still pretty awful. Consider: "Your love was handmade for somebody like me." That's just a weird thing to say, the combination of specific customization ("handmade") with vague generality ("for somebody like me") is just an odd way to go when talking about love. It's the kind of thing you might hear in hawking some product: "You there, sir, try this, this love was handmade for somebody like you!"

Also, let's not forget the awkward phrase "Grab on my waist and put that body on me"-shouldn't it be "Grab onto my waist and put your body on mine," or at least "put that body onto mine" ? (Or is there a corpse in this song that she wants to hide under: "Quick, put that body on me!" I know I'm quibbling a bit here, but these are just really bizarre choices.

Let me finish with this gem:

"I'm in love with the shape of you
We push and pull like a magnet do"

It's always cute when wordsmiths decide to get fancy and go all rhymey, but that's a terrible line. "We push and pull like magnets" is still stupid but at least it is grammatical (the other easy way out that keeps the rhyme is "We push and pull like magnets do" even though the "do" is totally unnecessary). Both options also avoid raising questions about how two people are like one magnet. Is there an attraction-repulsion thing going on between them and other objects? At least if they were attracted like magnets they would be together, but I guess you don't get the vaguely suggestive "push and pull" part. Maybe Ed Sheeran has been getting lessons on magnets from the ICP.

There isn't too much else I really have to say about the song. It's a simple song in a way that The Shins' "Simple song" isn't.