Love ’em or hate ’em, there’s no denying that Radiohead is among the most celebrated outfits in musical history. Much of the talk of their work is centered around two of the five members—singer Thom Yorke and multi-instrumentalist and composer Johnny Greenwood.
However, there is a hidden gem in their shadows in Ed O’Brien. For years, he has been relegated to the background, getting even less attention than Phil Selway, often mentioned in conversations of the best drummers in the world, and even Colin Greenwood, whose bass lines are undeniably groovy.
But now, he has emerged with Earth, his first solo record. And it’s pretty quickly apparent that we need to be apologize for ignoring him all this time.
There was once a point in my life where most of my music was discovered through Pitchfork.com’s Best New Music section. Trashy hipster hellscape Pitchfork may be, I made a number of great discoveries there, such as 
My fifteenth birthday was a formative one. While on vacation with my family, I made the conscious decision to stop spiking my hair and instead push it forward. I decided to put away my past-the-knee shorts and skate shoes in favor of slim fit jeans and Chuck Taylors. And when given free reign at a CD shop, I bought Dashboard Confessional’s The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most (and the first two 
Few songwriters are as prolific and profound as Conor Oberst. In fact, it was his album 
When you’re exploring new music, occasionally you come across love-at-first-site records—albums that immediately latch themselves to your psyche when you first hear them. Then, there are slow burns—records that take a little more exploration, but fully envelop you in their sonic arms.
