Tom Odell - Wrong Crowd

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A very good album

I have to say that I wasn't all that keen on Tom Odell's debut, Long Way Down, but I saw him give a magnificent performance of Magnetised on Radio 1 Live Lounge (still available on the BBC iPlayer and YouTube and well worth catching, along with his incredible cover of I Took A Pill In Ibiza from the same set.)  That persuaded me to try Wrong Crowd.  I'm glad I did, because it's a good album with some cracking highlights.

This is a more highly-produced and slightly less grindingly downbeat album, and it benefits from both, I think.  There are certainly intense songs and plenty of heartbreak, but the atmosphere is one of poignancy and insight rather than pure poor-me misery, and it's a very powerful listen in places.  The title track and the superb Magnetised get the album off to a great start, as does Concrete, which has a great stripped-back, beaty sound and shows a really nice witty but tender side to Tom's lyrics:

"I'd sleep

On a bed that's made of

Concrete,

Just the two of us and

No sheet,

Just your feet

Rubbing up against mine…"

Not all of the lyrics are so good, mind you; Sparrow's lyrics are fey and very cliché-ed, even if it is rather a lovely song, for example.  I also found the production just a bit samey and over-reliant on mixed-forward percussion, and I could have done with a bit more variety of sound.  However, as an album I like it a lot – and the closing track of the Deluxe Edition, I Thought I Knew What Love Was, is an absolutely heartrending piece of brilliance, I think.

A very good album, then, and very recommendable.  I'm looking forward to more Tom Odell; he's very good now and on this evidence I think he may develop into something really special.