With help from his many friends, Ed Sheeran’s new ‘No. 6 Collaborations Project’ is a winner

Ed Sheeran’s new album “No. 6 Collaborations Project” (Atlantic) lets him show off his tremendous range — and his impressive list of contacts.

Stars including Cardi B, Justin Bieber, Travis Scott, Khalid, Bruno Mars and Eminem appear with Sheeran.

The result is an understandably scattershot mix of styles — G-Funk, grime, trap, R&B, tropical hip-hop, ballads, hair metal. But what knits it together is an impossibly high level of songwriting — and undeniable joy.

Sheeran seems to revel in playing with Migos effects (Skrrt!), rapping with Eminem, singing in front of a horn section and just being on the same song with Cardi B purring “Okurrr.”

The title of the 15-track project is a nod to his 2011 “No. 5 Collaborations Project,” which saw Sheeran team up with U.K. rappers. This time, he welcomes everyone from H.E.R. to Argentina’s Paulo Londra to the brilliant but lesser-known rapper Dave.

Standout songs include “Cross Me” with Chance the Rapper and PnB Rock, “Take Me Back to London” with Stormzy and “Beautiful People” with Khalid.

Even with all of these collaborations, there are little touches that remind you this is a Sheeran album. He’s still got that sad-sack, lovable-misfit thing going on despite having won acclaim and made millions.

Two songs — “Beautiful People” and “I Don’t Care” with Bieber — have Sheeran at a party where he feels he doesn’t belong. “I always feel like I’m nobody,” he sings.

One thing that has changed is that marriage seems to agree with Sheeran. If, in the past, he was creeping a little in an ex’s DMs, the newly married Sheeran has created an album awash with love messages to his wife.

“I’m stickin’ with my baby, for sure,” he sings on “Cross Me.” On “Put It All on Me,” he says, “Having my woman there is good for my soul.”

He does get frisky for someone not Mrs. Ed Sheeran on another fun track, “South of the Border,” a kind of U.S. cousin to his “Galway Girl.” He and Camila Cabello celebrate a certain lass with “brown eyes, caramel thighs” who makes him cry out (OK, a little cringingly) “Te amo, mami.” Finally, Cardi B storms in to play up the double entendre of the title and announce: “I think that Ed got a lil’ jungle fever.”

A few of the guests elevate their songs — Stormzy and YEBBA, among them. But there are a few underwhelming tracks, too, including the Bieber song and the Sheeran-Ella Mai union on “Put It All on Me.”

For the last track, Sheeran, Mars and Chris Stapleton — just take a moment to wrap your head around that trio — get into a Led Zeppelin groove with “BLOW,” a head-banger awash in sexual imagery. “Pull my trigger/Let me blow your mind.”

Too late. Our minds already have been blown.

Atlantic Records