Ed O’Brien’s Blue Morpho steps confidently beyond the Radiohead shadow

Ed O’Brien’s Blue Morpho received a 28 May critical spotlight, giving the Radiohead guitarist’s second solo album another important release-week push. Issued via Transgressive, the album is O’Brien’s first under his full name rather than EOB, and that naming decision fits the emotional frame. Blue Morpho has been presented as a record about emergence, healing and finally stepping forward after depression, uncertainty and a stalled first solo era.

The sound is broader and more confident than a simple guitar-side-project might suggest. Brazilian influence, psych-folk, rocktronica, ambient passages, spiritual searching and large string arrangements all appear in the picture, with collaborators including Paul Epworth, Shabaka Hutchings, Philip Selway, Dave Okumu, Tõnu Kõrvits and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.

The title’s butterfly symbolism is obvious, but it works because the music seems built around transformation without pretending transformation is easy. For indie and alternative readers, Blue Morpho matters because it shows a musician known for atmosphere and texture turning those tools inward. O’Brien does not need to out-Radiohead Radiohead. He sounds more compelling when he treats the solo record as a space for recovery, movement and quiet revelation. Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/ed-obrien-blue-morpho/