He’s been a guitarist in one of the biggest bands in the world for 35 years, but Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien never planned on releasing a solo album until relatively recently. Earth came out on Friday and it’s an album of surprising influences — Brazil, Wales, Walt Whitman, Nick Drake and outer space.

Ed O'Brien chats to Andrew Ford about discovering his songwriting talents later in his career, and his theories about Radiohead’s longevity and global success.

And we feature another extraordinary debut album, this one from British singer Yola. Yolanda Quartey got her start in music lending her powerful voice to session recordings and live UK electronic acts like Massive Attack and Bugz In The Attic. But her true love, and the music her voice is best suited to, has always been Americana and country music.

It was a long and hard road to put out Walk Through Fire, but the result is a powerful (and 4 x Grammy nom’d) album, produced by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach.