Tom Odell

A British singer/songwriter with a keen sense for both atmosphere and melody, Tom Odell’s piano-led odes to heartache and pain are emotional, raw, and often hushed affairs that evoke names like Leonard Cohen and Jeff Buckley. His acclaimed 2012 debut EP earned him a BRITs Critics’ Choice award, and his first full-length outing, 2013′s Long Way Down, reached number one on the U.K. albums chart. Odell recorded his next two releases in New York and Los Angeles before returning home to London for 2018′s intimate Jubilee Road and 2021′s dark, electro-pop-leaning monsters. His stripped-down fifth album, The Best Day of My Life, appeared in 2022.
Born in the West Sussex town of Chichester, England, Odell spent his formative years studying at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music. In 2012, after landing a record deal with Columbia Records, the then-21-year-old released his debut EP, Songs from Another Love, made his television debut on Later… with Jools Holland, and was nominated for and won the Critics’ Choice category of that year’s BRIT Awards. He released his first full-length studio effort, Long Way Down, in 2013. The platinum-selling album was a huge success, having gone straight in at number one on the U.K. charts, and Odell spent the following couple of years touring the material relentlessly, supporting huge names such as Elton John, Billy Joel, and the Rolling Stones along the way.
Odell soon sought refuge from the limelight, and found it in the shape of a small apartment in New York’s East Village. It was there that he found the time to begin working on his follow-up, 2016′s Wrong Crowd. After a European tour in 2014, and after scooping up an Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year, Odell again relocated, this time to Los Angeles. The album began to take shape with the help of producer Jim Abbiss, best known for his work with Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, and Adele, among others. Ever the avid film buff, Odell issued a collection of films to accompany Wrong Crowd that followed the narrative of the album. Scripted by Odell and with the help of director George Belfield, the films explored themes of isolation and innocence, having drawn inspiration from greats such as Wenders, Malick, and Fellini during his time spent under the radar in New York.
In April 2018, Odell issued an eponymous single from his third studio LP, the inward-looking Jubilee Road, which arrived later that October. The single “Numb” appeared in early 2021 ahead of the release of the full-length monsters. Darker and moodier than its predecessor, the electro-pop-tinged set drew inspiration from artists like XXXTentacion, Drake, and Travis Scott. Early the following year, Odell stripped his sound back down to its piano and vocal core on the poignant “Best Day of My Life,” the title track from his fifth LP which arrived in October 2022. ~ James Christopher Monger