Global star Tom Odell Exposed a Brand New Remix of His Single “numb” Featuring ZAIA
“numb,“ the first single from his forthcoming album monsters (set for release June 25th via Sony Music UK/RCA Records) premiered on 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.
ZAIA, shared, “Atlanta’s latest lightning bolt of talent” by COMPLEX, offers the following about his additions to the track, that lyrically he was speaking about “an exhaustion from love being the driving force. I was speaking from a point of being fed up and tired of love.”
After a dark period of mental health stalked most of his 2018 and 20119, Odell wrote his way through it, eventually letting down his guard and pouring his feelings into new music for his forthcoming fourth studio album monsters set for release June 25th.
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.
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 recently performed a stripped down version of “monster” on BBC1 Graham Norton TV show (watch here) and “numb” on The Late Late Show With James Corden.
Despite joining TikTok relatively recently, his heavily engaged videos have been viewed over 15 million times. His career breakthrough single “Another Love” has also enjoyed a recent resurgence, re-entering the Spotify Weekly Top 50 Chart in 10 markets, on Spotify’s Daily Global Top 100 Chart this week and enjoying over 1.48M daily streams across all digital service providers.
