Review: Tom Odell’s Jubilee Road: the star at the top of your album tree

By Shivani Shukla | Nov 22 2018

English singer and songwriter Tom Odell’s new album, Jubilee Road deserves to be on the top of your weekend playlist. His signature style of mixing instrumental brilliance and variable pitches is preserved in this new track-list and showcases the versatility of his voice. From melancholy jazz tunes such as ‘You’re Gonna Break My Heart Tonight’, to the soothing lullaby-like lyrics in ‘Jubilee Road’ and uplifting upbeats of ‘China Dolls’, this album has songs for varied tastes. ‘Half as Good as You’ is my personal favourite, with its undercurrent of sadness and emptiness after a person you love is gone. The duet with Alice Merton sees a perfect merging of two beautiful voices. ‘Go Tell Her Now’ is a wonderful rendition of the feeling of courage it takes to tell a person you love them. The album’s title track, ‘Jubilee Road’, is indeed the star of the album. The song incites nostalgia in the listener with its detailed wordings and Odell’s intonation of each memory, as if they were your own.My heart is stuck on the impassioned piano anthems. Each song has beautiful chords on the piano and the sets can be an album in themselves. The singer’s emotional singing carries you up and down, and through sadness and loneliness, hope and encouragement, with every sonorous note resonating his emotions. The entire mood of the album is almost as if the singer penned his exact thoughts, with soul-stirring lyrics and piano sets. This album is perfect for a day in by yourself.