About

Tom Odell has never lived up to the image people have of him. "My music was perceived as a 'major label creation'," says the singer-songwriter with an eye roll. In the early stages of his career, perhaps because he burst onto the scene armed with a Brits Critics' Choice Award, an instantly ubiquitous single ('Another Love') and a major label deal, critics questioned his authenticity - as if his knack for a good hook were somehow a taint against him. Even his last year's album 'Monsters' - on which he pushes boundaries, experiments with new sounds and talks about his struggles with crippling fears - has been dismissed by some as an attempt to stay relevant. "I don't care if people don't like my music, but when someone says, 'This is a major label creation,' I say, 'You have no idea how hard I worked on it,'" says Odell.

Also, no one seemed to know where to put him. "Alternative people think I'm pop, and pop people think I'm alternative..." So he decided he didn't want to please anyone anymore. He left Sony, released the outside pressure and made the record that felt right in his bones. "I feel so free, so liberated, to be an independent artist," he says. "Honestly, this music is a huge relief because I can do exactly what I want. I didn't want to throw in as many hooks as I could, not have the chorus right at the beginning of the song, but just create an environment for people to sit and breathe to the music."