Album Review: Ed O'Brien "Blue Morpho"
The last studio album from Radiohead was A Moon Shaped Pool, which was released ten years ago this month. But the band has actually been quite prolific as a touring band including the 2018 show I saw in Boston; anniversary box sets and live albums; and solo and side projects. The side project The Smile with Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood raised the bar of what a side project can be; Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack work and his new collaboration with Shye Ben Tzur with The Rajasthan Express have shown his range as a musician; Colin Greenwood has toured with Nick Cave and released a killer photo book; and Phil Selway has released some cool solo albums too. Guitarist Ed O'Brien has flown under the radar, but his 2020 album Earth, released under the name EOB, was one of the best Radiohead solo album or side projects yet. In my album review I wrote "The album’s sound is very much in line with Radiohead’s alt-rock stylings. At times some of these songs even sounded like they could be Radiohead album outtakes. " Now O'Brien is about to release his second solo album Blue Morpho on Transgressive Records this week.
Upon the release of Earth in April 2020, there was a world wide lockdown and O'Brien was unable to tour or promote it much, which was unfortunate as I would've like to have seen him play those songs live. Following that time period, he fell into a deep depression and reportedly felt disconnected from his Radiohead bandmates, but that changed with last year's Radiohead tour in Europe. Working with producer Paul Epworth (Paul McCartney's New album) in both O'Brien's home studio and in London, these songs came from a soulful place of coming out of darkness and getting back to something you love again. Radiohead's Phil Selway plays on some of these songs too.
As I've said before, when you are in a band where Thom Yorke is the singer, it’s not likely you get the chance to sing too often in the band. But similar to Joe Perry or Keith Richards doing a solo album, O’Brien shows he’s actually quite good. Jonny Greenwood gets most of the attention as the band's guitarist, but O'Brien is among the most innovative guitarists of the now. The Smile is the one Radiohead side project where it's not just as good as Radiohead albums, but in some cases even better. Having said that, O'Brien proves he's a force of nature and his new one shows he's one of the best musicians out there both in and out of Radiohead! This album continues his style but expands into trance and even new age sounds. I can only hope he tours or that Radiohead tours the U.S., preferably both together!
