The song received mixed reviews from music critics, who compared its sound and style to the works of the Weeknd,[6][7][8] as well as Bronski Beat.

A UK drill remix made by Fumez the Engineer featuring British rappers Tion Wayne and Central Cee was released on 12 August 2021.

[11] Following his performance with Bring Me the Horizon at the 2022 BRIT Awards, the pair announced they were releasing a heavy metal studio version of the track on 17 February 2022.

[14] A slower acoustic song was planned to be released as the lead single from Sheeran's upcoming fifth studio album =.

[18][19] Sheeran himself confirmed the pictures to be genuine by posting outtakes of the video shoot on his social media pages in June 2021.

[6] Nick Levine of NME gave the track three out of five stars, calling it "neither a misfire nor a surefire winner," and compared the sound style to Bronski Beat works, especially "Smalltown Boy".

[9] The Independent's Adam White was less impressed, giving "the stilted comeback" two out of five stars and saying Sheeran was "letting the toplines do the work and rummaging through Abel Tesfaye's leftovers.

"[7] Quinn Moreland of Pitchfork derided the song as "painfully predictable", writing that it "aspires for Abel but settles for anonymity".

[35] On the chart dated 28 August 2021, the song reached a new peak at number two behind "Stay" by the Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber.

[38] The video starts in a beauty salon with Sheeran as a vampire, withering a flower before flying across chaos-ridden streets.

Most of the monsters go into hiding, with a few vaporized by the sunlight, except for Sheeran, who transforms back into his normal human self, playing the guitar as the video ends.

[16] Madison Bloom of Pitchfork described Sheeran as "the worst monster in the history of pop music", pointing out that the video "constantly suggests the potential for violence and gore but never commits.

[261] The Editor in Chief of MetalSucks, Emperor Rhombus, called the performance at the BRIT Awards an attempt to combine metal with pop, but said that it came off sounding like an Imagine Dragons song.