Bringing about the sounds of Amnesiac-era Radiohead (“Pyramid Song” and “Like Spinning Plates” come to mind), “Blue Morpho” is a dark but dreamlike song that takes its name from the Morpho menelaus ‘blue morpho’ butterfly species.
The song follows someone in a dream ascending and transforming to the call of Morpheus, the Greek god of sleep. The song has a few connections to other pieces of the band’s discography. It mentions anamnesis, the process of remembering events and details of your past life — referenced both in the song of the same name from Chunky Shrapnel, as well as “Magenta Mountain” from Omnium Gatherum. It also contains the phrase “moonless night,” first heard on “The Acrid Corpse.”
The Menelaus blue morpho came to Stu’s attention while on a trip to Central America. In an interview with Stereogum, he said: “the blue morpho is a giant blue butterfly. I came across them in Nicaragua and they were just majestic and felt like they had power and agency over their place in the world. They’re very easy to draw a metaphor from — their life is insanely bizarre and beautiful and short. And then it’s over. I think the blue morpho represents a lot of things on this record. It felt very fitting that this blue butterfly was going to reign over this record and be the motif.”
The song was originally just the outro of “Dreams,” however, it was stretched out into its own track after Stu saw more potential in it. In that same article he said: “it was a short instrumental, maybe like a minute long. ‘Dreams’ faded out and this was the reprise, but from another perspective, I suppose. From a conceptual point of view, I was trying to make it sound like you’re going into your dream. After singing ‘I want to wake up in my dream,’ now I’m actually going into the dream. But it was one of those moments where the feedback from all the other guys in the band was like, ‘Nah, that’s its own thing, that’s a song!’ So it was really just about stretching it out and letting it go in different ways in different places, and letting it be its own thing.”
The song was recorded by Stu (synthesizer/vocals/Mellotron/bass/Wurlitzer/drums/acoustic guitar), Ambrose (percussion/saxophone) and Cavs (drums), and released on June 11th, 2021 as part of Butterfly 3000. It later appeared in a full album video filmed at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles released on the 24th.
The music video for the song was the second done by Jamie Wolfe and directly follows her video for “Dreams.” It features a number of surreal 2D animated scenes and was commissioned at the second peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wolfe described the video in an interview with It’s Nice That: “Similar to the ‘Dreams’ video, the point of each individual shot is more about the energy behind the action, as opposed to the action itself… I think my literal pitch was ‘The dreams of the dreamers in the ‘Dreams’ video’.”
Like all Butterfly 3000 videos, it would be featured on the Blu-Ray Butterfly 3000: Ocular Edition.
“Blue Morpho” was remixed five times for the album Butterfly 3001.
The first heard is the VRIL Remix, starting with breathy synth pads before flying into a brisk techno rendition of the song with quiet vocals and heavy drums and bass.
Starting with crisp hi-hats and the melody from the end of “Dreams”, “Ciel’s Fluttering Dub” is a groovy instrumental remix that strays far from “Blue Morpho” proper.
The ZANDOLI II Remix begins with the sounds of a jungle before introducing a bright rhythm accented by electric keyboard. This falls into a slower pocket by the end.
The final “Blue Morpho” remix on Butterfly 3001 is the Mall Grab Remix and features a bouncy dancehall rhythm under Stu’s vocals.
The song has never been played live.