The Radiohead guitarist centers his voice on his eclectic second solo album. Ed O’Brien is used to working with good musicians. There are the folks he plays with at his day job, a little rock outfit called Radiohead, and then there’s the crew he assembled for his latest solo opus, Blue Morpho. The guitarist and songwriter returns with his sophomore LP in 2026, following 2020’s Earth. On this mesmerizing effort, he recruited producer Paul Epworth, who’s worked with everyone from Beck to Paul McCartney to Rihanna. Flutes on the album are handled by jazz futurist Shabaka Hutchings, and fellow accompanists include guitarist Dave Okumu and drummer Dan See. Despite the influx of top-end talent, O’Brien’s voice remains front and center on Blue Morpho, which finds the songwriter exploring propulsive krautrock on opening track “Incantations” and trippy, avant-rock on “Teachers.” The influence of Radiohead lingers in the background, but O’Brien uses their inventive approach to songwriting as a launching point from which he and his assembled collaborators move into all sorts of strange, exciting worlds.