Earth is the debut album from singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ed O'Brien of Radiohead fame. After releasing his debut single SANTA TERESA 6 months ago, EOB has finally dropped a full length, 9 track LP. But is it good?
I probably said this when I did my Phil Selway review, radiohead are one of my favourite bands ever. Of all time. They've just got more great albums than any band should reasonably have and a plethora of unbelievable singles, B sides and live performances to dig through, and O'Brien has been a part of the band from it's earliest incarnations. So I was seriously excited when I heard he was finally branching off on his own musical adventure (looking at you, Colin) and I've been thoroughly anticipating this album from the day it was announced.
So, we should probably start at the start, as most records do. The first track on this album is called SHANGRI-LA, and opens with this quirky electronic section before Ed's vocals start. Ed wastes no time layering the sounds with more acoustic, electric and percussive elements joining in too. There are so many musical threads to follow before the song even reaches the half way point, and then the hook comes in with this driving electric guitar, as Ed properly vocally asserts himself into the track. After the second hook, all the sounds start to meld into one amorphous, moving blob, with Ed's vocals flowing up and down in the mix, alongside all the other song elements. Listening to Ed talk about the track makes this make sense, with the title being a half-reference to Glastonbury's Shangri-la, and the track being about leaving life behind and "finding your tribe" as Ed describes it, hence the melding of himself into the eclectic sound palette of the track. It's full of energy and a great start to the album.
The next track is BRASIL, which was also the first single from the album (SL being the second) and it's 8 and a half minutes long. O'Brien moved to the country at the start of last decade, and the country's influence is all over this album, thematically and musically. This song opens with this 5/4 guitar melody with Ed softly singing. The track constantly feels like it's about to slip away from the time sig, and when it does and the drum kicks in with the bass, man, you guys sounded so good together. But seriously, when Colin comes in after the drums, the track really starts to open up and turn into something beautiful. The layering and sonic landscape Ed creates is mesmerising and takes you somewhere else entirely. The mesh of rhythm and melody is entrancing, and the track feels unabashedly happy to be alive. Probably worth saying at this point that you really need a good pair of headphones or speakers to get the full effect of this album.
Track 3, DEEP DAYS, reduces the energy level a bit for a heavily latin inspired track that Ed still manages to interweave with some cool electronic parts. It's not as sonically remarkable as the first two tracks, and Ed's formula for hook writing is laid out pretty clearly: repeat some cool line he came up with, with slight variations and maybe some backing vocals. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I can see it becoming grating on re-listens, especially with how many times it's repeated in this song. Despite this, the instrumental development keeps the track interesting. LONG TIME COMING is effectively an acoustic ballad, and has the effect of taking the record right back down to basics, and it's a pretty good palette cleanser from the huge variety of flavours from the first 3 tracks.
MASS is the song at the numeric centre of this album, and unfortunately it's kind of a dud. Aside from some cool walls of guitar noise, it certainly lives up to it's name by being a mass of pretty indistinct sound. Which is a shame, because Glenn Kotche of Wilco fame is credited with drums on the track so I was expecting some pretty tight drumming but I don't think there was a single bass or snare hit for the 4 minute runtime.
BANKSTERS picks up the pace of the album again. As the title suggests, it's largely about bankers, with lyrics about ponzi schemes and a hook where O'Brien pushes "where did all the money go, where did all the money go? (you fuck)". It's probably the most conventionally verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-outro, tho the energy kind of dissipates by the outro. But it's still a fun track.
Next up is SAIL ON which isn't too dissimilar to SAIL TO THE MOON by radiohead, with a very reverby, vibey atmosphere. It's fine but there isn't too much substance.
The penultimate track is OLYMPIK and kind of feels like one one big party before the end of the record, coming in at 8:38. As soon as the song starts, the bass section reminds me of ONE TOUCH by LCD soundsystem, as well as some of the guitars later in the track (tho they could be equally attributed to Talking Heads). The latin influence is back here, but Ed brings in plenty of electronic instrumentation and awesomely modified guitar sounds as the song progresses. Again, speakers/headphones are definitely required for the full experience. The track evolves enough over it's huge runtimes to stay interesting, with Ed floating in and out on vocals.
The album closes up with CLOAK OF THE NIGHT, a more true to form acoustic ballad with duet vocals. O Brien enlists Laura Marling and their fairly dry vocals mix quite well over the soft guitar. The track feels like slipping out of a party under the cloak of night with your significant other to just enjoy the company of eachother. It's a sweet end to the record.
Overall, Ed O'Brien's debut solo album ends up being a pretty mixed bag. Looking at it as a whole, you could say it comes across as unfocused, but that's pretty much what you get when your title is as expansive as "EARTH". Ed's ability to layer sounds and textures is displayed at full force, but I think his structuring and songwriting could use some work. Hopefully we'll see this in future solo ventures, but this album still showcases a great deal of musical skill and intuition. Lots of fun to listen to and explore.
댓글