Review Summary: Radiohead's "texture guy" translates a dark night of the soul into a rewarding musical journey
Ed O’Brien is arguably the most inconspicuous member of Radiohead. The “texture guy”. While his old bandmates were starting numerous side-projects and scoring films, Ed remained - similar to his role in the band - firmly in the background. Now he’s translated a dark night of the soul into a masterfully crafted album.
This isn’t Ed’s first solo outing. Under the moniker EOB, he released his debut Earth in 2020. It’s clear that this is a different beast though. When listening to Earth, there’s this unmistakable sense that you’re listening to a part of Radiohead. Something about the rhythms, voices and textures gives it away. Not so on Blue Morpho. It sounds like Ed’s managed to craft something more confidently his own, even though the songs are still musical neighbors to his old bands’ discography.
Blue Morpho’s origin can be traced back to the tour for Earth, which was disappointingly cut short by COVID restrictions. Within the emptiness of that time, Ed fell into a depression. He’s been open about his struggles before, such as after the OK Computer tour. But while at the time he struggled with drinking, this time Ed decided to sit it out and face his fears. Blue Morpho is in a way a document of this process.
The first four songs feel like Ed is firmly inside this process of turning inward. The songs are frantic, searching, circular and melancholic. In these 5-, 6-, 7-minute songs he takes his time to really build out the tension, inviting us to marinate in it with him. The lyrics are often short chants, and the focus is heavily on the instrumentation and the build-out of the songs. But then the album turns and from within these shifting grounds two shorter ambient songs emerge. The frantic energy finally settles down and we get to just float there with him for a bit. Then the closer Obrigado is, obviously, about gratitude. This might sound like too tight a musical journey, but it’s very well executed.
Ed said in an interview that he “finally knows he wants to make music for the rest of his life”. That’s a hell of a thing to say after being a founding member of one of the world’s best bands for the past three decades. After listening to this album though, I can understand it. He’s expressed regrets around his debut Earth, saying he’s forced the album to be something. It’s clear that Blue Morpho is not that. This is Ed finally not servicing something bigger than himself, but it’s him expressing himself freely and authentically, and thankfully, being at peace with the process.
