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Ed O'Brien shared his debut solo album Earth in April of 2020 — not the best timing, it turned out. He released it under the moniker EOB, and today the Radiohead guitarist is announcing his sophomore effort Blue Morpho under his full name. The title track is out now.
"Blue Morpho," co-written with producer Paul Epworth, is bucolic and sprawling. It features Dave Okumu on guitars and bass, Crispin "Spry" Robinson on percussion, Nick Ramm on keyboards, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra on strings (arranged by Tõnu Kõrvits), and Radiohead’s Philip Selway on drums. Flutist Shabaka Hutchings, who released the new album Of The Earth earlier this month, appears on the album as well.
The LP was recorded at O'Brien's studio in Wales and the 200-year-old Church Studios in London. An accompanying short film called Blue Morpho: The Three Act Play premiered at SXSW yesterday and will be released alongside the record.
Talking to Rolling Stone, O’Brien says he began working on Blue Morpho during the early pandemic, a period he refers to as a “midlife crisis.”
“I went into a deep depression. It was the first time in my life that I had to stop. And what I realized was that I’d been keeping busy, like a lot of people do, running from these ghosts of my past, particularly from my childhood.”
On some days he didn’t want to get out of bed, he tells the magazine: “I thought, ‘Will this be with me forever?’” But he found concentrating on new music and connecting with nature to be therapeutic.
Late last year Radiohead played 20 shows in the EU/UK, the band's first concerts in seven years. It was an emotional experience for O’Brien (and Harry Styles). He didn't want to tour for the band's 2016 album A Moon-Shaped Pool — “I just didn’t resonate with it anymore… we’d run out of inspiration” — but he’s glad he did, he says. And his time off following that trek changed his perspective on remaining in the band. "I think we always knew that if we got the love between us right, then it all flows from there.”
There won't be any Radiohead shows in 2026, but they're eyeing runs in North America, South America, and Asia/Oceania for 2027. "Every year we’re going to do a different continent, and we’re going to do 20 shows each year," he tells RS. “No more, no less.”
TRACKLIST:
01 "Incantations"
02 "Blue Morpho"
03 "Sweet Spot"
04 "Teachers"
05 "Solfeggio"
06 "Thin Places"
07 "Obrigado"
Blue Morpho is out 5/22 via Transgressive. Pre-order it here.
Steve Gullick
English (US) · 