Tom Odell

One Liner: Brit piano-playing singer with one mega hit (and a sound kinda like the New Radicals)

Wikipedia Genre: Indie pop, folk pop
Home: Chichester, West Sussex, England (I really wish we lived in cooler-sounding towns).

Poster Position: 24
Weekend Two Only.  Sunday.

Thoughts:  Holy hannah.  Never heard this name in my life, and yet he has a some with over NINE HUNDRED MILLION FREAKING STREAMS.  Like, Drake-level stuff.  Who the hell is this dude?  He won the BRIT Critic's Choice Award in 2013, and some of his songs have been used in TV shows (The 100, Blacklist, NCIS) and the movie The Fault in Our Stars, and some advertisements.  But nothing in his story really points at how a guy on the 24th line of the poster, who I have never heard of before just now, would have a song that massive.  The Internet-connected world works in mysterious ways.

That monster track is "Another Love," from his 2013 debut Long Way Down.  908.3 million streams.

My man is looking like a Hanson brother up in this video.  Or maybe one of the Silverchair guys.  Either way, it is a lovely little tune that has no reasonable business having more streams than any original David Bowie or Elton John song.  It's just a piano-based rock song about love.  Oh well, why fight it when it sounds really good!  That lady is real mad though.  Maybe she agrees with me.  The whole album kind of reminds me of Travis, the band, with a guitar-and-piano-driven pop rock sound.  It is good.

His 2022 single, "Best Day of My Life" takes a detour from his older sounds by using Auto-Tune and a more electronic sound.  Too bad, really.  Oh, actually, after saying that, the whole most recent album goes in that direction - 2021's monsters - still has piano, but adds in drum machines and some electro bits.  Looks to me like it was much less popular, with the first song getting 9.9 million streams, the second getting 3.2 million, and then most of the tracks at less than a million.  Here is "numb" with 9.9 million.

Makes me think of a Nine Inch Nails attempt at a pop song.  I'd agree with my perceived sentiment about this album being lesser than the older stuff, I enjoyed the more pure piano indie stuff over this sound.  I say that, and then "money" kind of sounds like a Radiohead ripoff, and it drew me in a little bit.  Like a cynical Hail to the Thief-era track about needing more money for more consumerism.  But "lockdown" is plain annoying.

Other than those two bookend albums, he released 2016's Wrong Crowd and 2018's Jubilee Road.  They definitely show an evolution towards a more pop sound.  Some tracks are still foly piano things, but others have drum machines and a dance beat.  All of his top songs are on that debut album though, so I guess it caught the public eye with that big hit and then people have been less interested since.  "Magnetised" is the top song from these two albums, and is on Wrong Crowd.  39 million streams.

Definitely a little more pop-forward than some of the other tunes, almost felt like I was about to get a full on EDM-esque drop in there.  Actually, as I listen to Wrong Crowd, you know what I keep mentally comparing this to?  The New Radicals.  It sounds like more music by the guy who sang "You Get What You Give."

Randomly, he has a lovely cover of "True Colors" in here that sounds great.  I'd go watch this guy do it live.  Enough real musicianship and songwriting chops here to take the chance that he'll do a techno set.