Tom Odell reveals his brand new single ‘numb‘ featured along with an accompanying official video
The new single ‘numb‘ from Tom Odell has featured along with an accompanying video which was filmed in Tom’s home in England and directed by Tom Odell & Joseph Delaney.
Odell’s various successes –boasting over 2.6 billion streams, three UK top 5 albums including the platinum-selling, chart-topping Long Way Down; two UK top 10 singles; 13 a 2013 Brit Award for Critic’s Choice – there’s one thing that’s always kept Tom Odell grounded: songwriting.
It feels like both a daring creative rebirth and a solidifying of Odell’s strengths. It’s all there in his single “numb” with its edgy open and Odell’s unadorned vocal over sparse piano – “I hold my hand over the flame, to see if I can feel some pain,” he sings – before eerie, wheezing electronics and layers of clipped beats cloaking the song. Inspired by experimental musician Mica Levi’s soundscapes, synthetic textures are painstakingly- fused with acoustic flourishes. “I would say there was this period where I was just disconnected,” he says of ‘numb’s lyrical inspiration. “I felt bogged down, like I was beginning to lose that sense of lightness.”
A masterful performer, Tom has appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Jonathan Ross Show, 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 Odell 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 andwent straight to LA to start writing the next album.
Odell shares, “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.
While his new music is at times weighty, there’s 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.
