Ed O'Brien has announced a new solo album. Blue Morpho is the follow-up to 2020's Earth, which he released as EOB, and the first album he'll release under his own name. It's due out May 22 via Transgressive, and it was produced by Paul Epworth. Other contributors include Shabaka Hutchings, composer Tõnu Kõrvits, and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.
When the band split, I just needed a break. I took five years but I got pulled back into music. It's been a struggle. That's the main thing. I want it to be great, but I've got the pressure of having been in R.E.M. and it's a high bar, because I want this to be as good as that, and that's near impossible.
"Oh, gosh, I've got tons of stuff," he responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth)."Since we finished the last Sabbath show [at 'Back to the Beginning' in July], I've just been going through all the stuff that I've written since the '80s onwards and updating everything. And what held me back before, I didn't have a singer when I'm at home, but AI came along. [laughs] So all my songs now, I've updated them all and I'm using an AI singer to bring all the lyrics out."
"When the song came to me it presented nearly fully formed: a pedaling bass line, a four part vocal harmony, an expansive soundscape," Kelley said in a press release. "Sometimes songs sound great in your head but then don't translate well into reality.
"The summer rain in Mexico City has been driving Meme del Real crazy. "This season of permanent torrential downpour gets to a point where you're like, ' Enough,' he says with a sigh. "There's people who really enjoy it, but I'm done. It's too much introspection to be in here all day, to not be able to go outside. It forces you to try other things, to find a conversation within that rather than a resistance."
