TOM ODELL RELEASES NEW TRACK MONSTER V.2
NEW ALBUM MONSTERS TO BE RELEASED JUNE 25
PRE-SAVE / PRE-ORDER HERE
Toronto, ON – March 31, 2021 – Today Brit and Ivor Novello award winning songwriter, plus platinum-selling, chart-topping artist, Tom Odell, releases his new single, monster v.2 on Columbia Records.
After a dark period of mental health stalked most of his 2018 and 2019, Odell wrote his way through it, eventually letting down his guard and pouring his feelings into new music that will form his fourth album, monsters, due to be released June 25. It feels like both a daring creative rebirth and a solidifying of Odell's strengths.
The first single from the new album was numb, (premiered as Radio 1 ‘Hottest Record’ by Jack Saunders standing in for Annie Mac). Now after releasing a stripped back version of the album title track, monster, Tom returns with the full version, monster v.2 with its eerie synths and spacious electronic beats augmenting the sound. The new single grabs hold of numb’s inky molasses and confronts it head on. With the sky-scraping chorus (“you're just a monster and I'm not scared”) initially inspired by Trump, and more specifically climate change activist, Greta Thunberg, staring him down at the UN Climate Summit in 2019, the song soon morphed into something more abstract; a self-help mantra for Odell's ongoing battle with anxiety. monster v.2 is accompanied by a video in which Tom’s fans sent in clips of what the word ‘monster’ meant to them.
Tom explains…“in 2019, my anxiety got so bad that I had to stop making music for a while. there was a period when it felt like I couldn’t leave the house without having a panic attack. I wrote this song, monster, about trying to overcome my struggles with those mental health problems. the more I’ve begun to speak about this subject, the more I’ve realised so many people are going through the same thing. I asked my fans to show me what the word ‘monster’ meant to them, and I thought I was just gonna make a 30 second video for instagram or something, but the first time we put all the clips together I cried. it was so moving to see people being so vulnerable. so I scrapped the whole other music video I had made for the song and ended up going with this as the main music video, as it was so good. I think it’s one of the most powerful videos I’ve ever been involved with.”
Tom recently debuted the ‘monster’ with a stripped down performance on The Graham Norton Show – watch the full performance here.
Tom Odell has been working as a musician in the public eye since he was 21 when self-penned debut album, Long Way Down, earned him a number one album. He has since enjoyed over 2.6 billion streams, three UK top five albums including two UK top 10 singles, a 2013 Brit Award for Critic's Choice and being awarded the prestigious Ivor Novello award for Songwriter of the Year. Now, 30, it's clear to Odell that the whirlwind around his debut kickstarted a work ethic that eventually became an obsession. It reached an apex in September 2019 when Odell, fresh off touring Jubilee Road, went straight to LA to start writing the next album. “Then this chronic anxiety that I'd had for a couple of years just got worse” Odell woke up one morning “and I couldn't do anymore music.” He knew something had to change. In the end he flew back home, went straight to his parent's house and slowly got better.
Slowly but surely, Odell alchemised that experience into a new album. He also realised his broader lyrical horizons needed to be matched by a musical expansion, with a lot of the songs on the album – created alongside songwriter, Laurie Blundell, and producer, Miles James – leaning into a more electronic, bedroom pop sound that Odell has steadily become obsessed with over the last few years. This new found love of DIY electronic pop chimed with the pandemic's arrival and songs were crafted in a more threadbare way around instruments he had at hand, like Moog synths. It was a move underpinned by both necessity and a desire to explore. And while his new music is at times heavy, there's a lightness of touch that means Odell is able to pull off pop's greatest trick; hiding sadness in the melodies. In this strangest of times this new music represents the start of chapter two in Odell's ongoing musical journey.
Tom Odell - The monsters Tour 2022
February 15 - Belfast Ulster Hall
February 16 - Dublin Olympia Theatre
February 18 - Southampton O2 Guildhall
February 19 - Bristol O2 Academy Bristol
February 20 - Manchester O2 Apollo
February 22 - Oxford O2 Academy
February 24 - London O2 Academy Brixton
February 26 - Liverpool O2 Academy
February 27 - Cardiff The Great Hall
March 1 - Leeds O2 Academy
March 2 - Newcastle O2 City Hall
March 4 - Glasgow 4 O2 Academy Glasgow
March 5 - Nottingham Rock City
March 6 - Cambridge Corn Exchange
March 8 - Birmingham O2 Academy
monsters Tracklisting:
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
