Ed Sheeran reveals he’s been working on fourth album for ‘six years’ after defending Glastonbury performance

Ed Sheeran has been working on his fourth studio album consistently for six years, he has revealed.

The pop superstar started working on record number four before he even released his debut, Plus, and adds one new track to it each year.

“I’ve been working on this one since the same time as [debut album] Plus. Every year I write a song that will go on it. So I have about six, seven at the moment,” he told the Sun.

While the singer-songwriter is used to having his singles at the top of the charts with latest album Divide, he will be moving away from pop tracks.

The forthcoming album, which is expected to be called Subtract, will have less “hits” and focus more on acoustic music.

“It’s not necessarily experimental but I don’t think there’ll be any hot radio songs on it this time. It’s a very acoustic record, very acoustic,” he said.

Sheeran was forced to defend his headline set at Glastonbury on Monday after a number of viewers questioned whether or not he was performing live.

After being accused of using a backing track during Sunday’s closing set, the singer explained that he was actually using a loop pedal.

“Never thought I'd have to explain it, but everything I do in my live show is live, it's a loop station, not a backing track. Please google x,” he wrote on Twitter.