Is Tom Odell this year’s Emeli Sandé? There are certainly parallels. Both have been recipients of the BRITs Critics’ Choice Award (Sandé in 2012, Odell in 2013); both have written irresistible piano ballads; and both are likely to be popular with your mum.
The 22-year-old singer-songwriter came to London last night a month before the release of his debut, Long Way Down. Before he and his three-piece band took the stage, the sounds of Jeff Buckley and Joni Mitchell played from the speakers.
But if Odell’s influences are classic, his sound couldn’t be more contemporary. The quiet-loud dynamic of set opener Grow Old With Me owed much to Mumford & Sons. Meanwhile, his fragile falsetto and habit of hunching over the piano pointed to another master of melancholy — Coldplay’s Chris Martin.
Thankfully, not everything was so earnest. A soulful cover of the Rolling Stones’ Honky Tonk Woman was given the full hairdryer treatment, while the rueful Another Love was paralleled to “taking your girlfriend up a hill for an ice cream — it’s never quite as good the second time”.
In Hold Me, Odell had a song built for the biggest of stages. And, while there’s nothing earth-shatteringly exciting about his music, that’s exactly where he’s headed.
