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Critic Reviews
80
The on-edge instrumentation has distinct echoes of his Radiohead days, proving that unlike many bandmates that split from their main gig, O’Brien is in no rush to shake off their signature, and instead brings it forward into his own work: always evolving, always maturing.
6y
80
Moving, emotional and richly textured, Earth is an impressive solo debut from O'Brien, and delivers one of this year's more fully-formed albums.
6y
80
Ed O’Brien goes on a fantastic voyage for his solo debut.
6y
80
O’Brien’s personality shines through, and it’s a pleasure to get to know him. It’s tempting to conclude he’s Radiohead’s secret weapon.
6y
80
Earth took a while to come together ... but it’s been well worth the wait.
6y
75
Radiohead guitarist's debut solo album is what you'd expect from a Radiohead guitarist. Which is nothing like you'd expect, of course.
6y
75
Earth is comparable to a polished gallery filled with three-dimensional shapes and colors; an ever-changing museum of expanded euphuisms transported from neuron to neuron-from pen to paper; from Brazil to the whole world.
6y
72
A crack team of musicians are orbiting O’Brien’s Earth, but the nine- song set is his proper attempt to “steer the collective…as a leader”. All told, he does a damn fine job.
6y
70
On his solo debut, the guitarist gracefully comes to the front of the stage — and delivers.
6y
70
Earth is mild, fond of itself and of its listener, and amiably unassuming; anything more, one suspects, is beyond its scope.
6y
70
Maybe Earth isn’t packed with abstract intricacies to pore over like most of the other records he’s been involved with, but it is fundamentally honest to its creator: a proud family man, a humanitarian and – finally – a solo songwriter.
6y
70
O’Brien puts his decades of experience in Radiohead to use in creating a diverse but not disconnected album.
6y
60
At times it almost feels like an alternate-history tendril of pre-Kid A Radiohead that kept its groove going into the coming decades. While those layered textures, pulsing beats, and unfolding guitar loops are fine, it's EOB as a reflective acoustic singer/songwriter that provides Earth's most authentic moments.
6y
57
Unlike his bandmates’ forays in electronica or contemporary classical, Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien’s solo debut looks fondly back at the kind of British rock his own group abandoned.
6y
50
‘Earth’, the debut LP from Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien might provide moments of hope and compassion across its runtime, but for the majority it feels too indirect and underplayed.
6y
50
No amount of technical prowess can disguise O'Brien himself as a frontman, whose voice and personality is agreeable but never compelling. Because even if he feels it, it doesn't necessarily mean it's there.
6y
40
Ultimately, Earth, for all its ambition, will mainly be of interest to Radiohead completists.
6y
EEEEED O'Brien, one of the biggest musicians out there (and by big I mean he's literally 6'5), finally releases his own solo record. Now, I've pretty much enjoyed a lot of Radiohead side projects in the past. Thom Yorke's work is great, Johnny Greenwood's film compositions are superb and Phil Selway... I heard he has songs. Now that the third guitarist in the lineup has released his own set of rock tracks under the very creatively-named EOB, how does it stack up?
Well, the production from ... read more
EOB - Ed's 'Other' Business
He has an excellent voice for backing vocals, we leave it there.
So big man Ed O' Brien decided to take on the world with a brand new solo project. I was very excited for this album considering that I'm a pretty big Radiohead fan and for a while I've been meaning to delve into the groups work outside of the main bands discography. Now with this new album I can say that I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
The atmosphere of this album attempts to go for a more psychedelic approach and for the most part it works very well. The instrumentals are ... read more
Really cool groove. Flood's influence is very clear here, half the ablum sounds like an offshoot of U2's Zooropa, without this taking away from this one (I would believe it you told me that Shangri-La and Olympik were Zooropa's b-sides that I had never listened to, both excellent) . I thoroughly enjoyed it.
There are some highlights throughout, especially thanks to the interesting production. On the songwriting-front I am missing a lot though. Nothing really caught my ear in that department. The song structures are definitely unique and keep the listener engaged, but lyrically, there was not a lot to take away for me. The vocals also lacked expressiveness, which is especially apparent when Laura Marling utterly wipes the floor with Ed on the closing track.
With the news of Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien's (formerly known as EOB) second album on the way, I wanted to revisit this project to see how I feel about it six years later.
There are only a few albums I was familiar with prior to creating my AOTY account that I have yet to rate and review, and this is one that I'm reminded of from time to time and think to myself, "Man, I should go back to that one!". And then I forget about having that thought, and never end up ... read more
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Track List
| 1 | Shangri-La 5:47 | 84 |
| 2 | Brasil 8:27 | 86 |
| 3 | Deep Days 4:59 | 78 |
| 4 | Long Time Coming 2:50 | 75 |
| 5 | Mass 4:10 | 73 |
| 6 | Banksters 5:08 | 76 |
| 7 | Sail On 3:27 | 72 |
| 8 | Olympik 8:38 | 82 |
| 9 | Cloak of the Night 2:33 feat. Laura Marling | 78 |
Total Length: 45 minutes
