Having carved his name into the list of the last decade’s biggest indie troubadours with his smash hit Another Love (520 million plays on Spotify and counting), a song that will play long into the night at weddings up and down the land for years to come, Chichester singer-songwriter Tom Odell could have ridden off into the sunset, his future and legacy secure, safe in the knowledge his music is loved by many.

When you consider Odell’s own personal circumstances, it’s even more surprising that he didn’t. He’s spoken at length about the anxiety and panic attacks that have affected him for years, and about the difficulty of dealing with them as a performing artist. Instead though, Odell has channeled these experiences into his fourth studio album, the aptly named Monsters.

We really enjoyed the album’s lead single Monster V.1, which spoke directly of these issues (“I woke up in the night / I found an empty cage / How you got out, I don't know / I guess you clawed your way / You waited there in the shadows / You made me feel afraid”). In an album that is surprisingly dark given Odell’s back catalogue, twisting and dense, it stood out as a refreshingly honest song to write and put out there. 

Money addresses this phenomenon directly, the act that songwriters go through of selling their own personal thoughts, experiences, and feelings, documented on a track that has a certain R&B flavour to it. Sonically, Odell experiments throughout Monsters, Lockdown is a sparse, house-infused affair with a bizarrely distorted vocal, while Fighting Fire With Fire takes these ideas even further into almost hip hop territory. Tracks like Lose You Again and Numb fall closer to the recognisable piano ballad Odell specialised in. 

You listen to Monsters hoping that writing and recording it was a cathartic experience for Odell. It’s certainly a deeply intriguing record, and one he deserves real credit for creating. 

Monsters tracklist:

1. Numb
2. Over You Yet
3. Noise
4. Money
5. Tears That Never Dry
6. Monster V.2
7. Lockdown
8. Lose You Again
9. Fighting Fire With Fire
10. Problems
11. Me And My Friends
12. Country Star
13. By This Time Tomorrow
14. Streets Of Heaven
15. Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark
16. Monster V.1 

Watch the official lyric video for Over You Yet here.

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.