Ed Sheeran – Salt Water (Audio, Lyrics, Video)

Watch the music video for the “SALT WATER” song off Ed Sheeran’s new Subtract protect. Listen, stream, read the lyrics, buy the track produced by Aaron Dessner.

Tagged the 5th best track on the album by Billboard, In between the two pre-release songs on the – track list, “Boat” and “Eyes Closed,” sits perhaps the darkest song of Sheeran’s career: “Salt Water” finds the singer-songwriter prodding his own suicidal thoughts, belting out, “I’m free in salt water / Embrace the deep and leave everything” over a tangle of guitars, cello and tambourine. With its backing vocals on the chorus, “Salt Water” soars as a folk-pop sing-along when divorced from its lyrical context — but as it stands, the longest song on the album is ambitiously unnerving.

Ed Sheeran – Salt Water (prod. Aaron Dessner)

5 May 2023
1 Song, 4 minutes
An Asylum Records UK release, a division of Atlantic Records UK, ℗ 2023 Warner Music UK Limited

Watch Video

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
There’s still so far to go and I can’t feel my toes
When the rain soaks through the heels and slips to the sole
Yeah, the blades are two feet tall
I wade in green, I’m movin’ forward, to where? God only knows
Feel the wind’s harsh refrain like the clouds gripped my face
Saying, “It’s alright to run from all this pain”
Oh, and when it’s time to go with one last breath that’s in my lungs
I’ll scream, “It’s all for love,” I’ll scream, “It’s all for love”

[Chorus]
Come and kiss me, salt water
Oh, finally, I feel, at three or four degrees
I’m free in salt water
Embrace the deep and leave everything
It was just a dream

[Verse 2]
I can see it up ahead where the sky meets the ground
And after that, there’s only moving grey
I am filled up with regret
With things I did or never said, just leave that, well, alone

[Chorus]
And come kiss me, salt water
Oh, finally, I feel, at three or four degrees
I’m free in salt water
Embrace the deep and leave everything
It was just a dream

[Post-Chorus]
(Ah-ah)
It was just a dream
It was just a dream
(Ah-ah)
It was just a dream
Was it just a dream?

[Bridge]
Now, I’m standing on the edge, gazing into hell
Or is it somethin’ else? I just can’t tell
When there’s nothin’ left, I close my eyes and take one step
And say, “Well, here it goes,” I say, “Well, here it goes”

[Chorus]
Come and kiss me, salt water
Oh, finally, I feel, at three or four degrees
I’m free in salt water
Embrace the deep and leave everything
It was just a dream