Tom Odell Releases New Single + Video “monster v.2.” Listen | Watch
New album monsters to be released June 25th Via Sony Music U.K./RCA Records
Pre-Save/Pre-Order album
Brit Award and Ivor Novello award-winning songwriter, plus platinum-selling, chart-topping artist Tom Odell today releases his new single “monster v.2” via Sony Music UK/RCA Records. Listen/Watch “monsters v.2.”
Odell’s fourth studio album, monsters, will be released June 25th. Pre-order HERE and find track listing below.
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 became his brand new album monsters. The album feels like both a daring creative rebirth and a solidifying of Odell’s strengths.
Last week, Tom released a stripped down version of the song and video titled “monster v.1.” CLASH described it “rustic and intimate…A song developed out of distaste, anxiety and personal responsibility, ‘monster v.1’ is a plea to better oneself despite pain. The video is starkly personal and filmed by Odell himself at home. Presented as personal diary tapes, “monster v.1” feels like watching someone’s most confidential moments of mental turbulence.” Watch the video/listen HERE. Tom debuted “monster” with a stripped down performance on The Graham Norton Show – Watch Here.
Last month, Odell premiered the album’s first single “numb” via BBC Radio 1 “Hottest Record In The World” with an accompanying video filmed in Tom’s home in England and directed by Tom Odell & Joseph Delaney. Watch it HERE.
“monster v.2” is the perfect companion track to follow “numb”–with the confrontational chorus (“you’re just a monster and I’m not scared”), lyrics initially inspired by Trump, and more specifically climate change activist Greta Thunberg’s staring down the former U.S. president at the UN Climate Summit in 2019. The song’s meaning soon morphed into something more abstract. The song became a self-help mantra for Odell’s ongoing battle with anxiety. Tom also releases a video today for which Tom’s fans sent in clips of what the word ‘monster’ meant to them.
Watch “monster v.2” here
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 realized 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.”
Odell has been working as a musician in the public eye since he was 21 when his self- penned debut album Long Way Down, earned him a UK number one album, top 10 single (the epic “Another Love” which propelled him to global notice) as well as the coveted Brit Award. A masterful performer, Tom has appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Graham Norton Show, Late Late Show with James Corden, Late Night with Seth Meyers and so many more.
Now, 30, it’s clear to Tom that the whirlwind around his debut kick started a work ethic that eventually became an obsession. It reached an apex in September 2019 when Odell, fresh off touring his album Jubilee Road, left his home in London and 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 any more 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.
Odell turned that challenging experience into this new album. He also realized 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 newfound love of DIY electronic pop chimed with the pandemic’s arrival and Odell crafted songs in a more threadbare way with instruments he had at hand, like Moog synths. It was a move underpinned by both necessity and a desire to explore. Eerie synths and head-rattling beats augment the sound. While his new music is at times weighty, there is a lightness of touch that means Odell is able to pull off pop’s greatest trick of 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 has enjoyed over 2.6 billion streams, three UK top 5 albums including the platinum-selling, chart-topping Long Way Down; two UK top 10 singles, a 2013
Brit Award for Critic’s Choice and was awarded the prestigious Ivor Novello award for Songwriter of the Year.
Tom Odell recently announced live dates for his UK 2022 “the monsters tour.” Tickets are available at Gigs and Tours, Ticketmaster and AXS. *Fans pre-ordering the album (vinyl, cd, cassette and more) on Tom’s official website will guarantee first access to tickets.
monsters album track listing:
- numb
- over you yet
- noise
- money
- tears that never dry
- monster v.2
- lockdown
- lose you again
- fighting fire with fire
- problems
- me and my friends
- country star
- by this time tomorrow
- streets of heaven
- don’t be afraid of the dark
- monster v.1
Pre-Order monsters here
