Welcome to the start of Great Escape week on the blog. For the next few days i’ll be going through who you should see and when. So let’s start with Thursday. This is who i’ll be gearing up to see this time next week…
14:30 Honeyblood
The Dome Studio Theatre (they also play at 19:45 at The Haunt)
19:30 Tom Odell
The Warren (also playing at 22:15 at St. Bartholowmew’s Church)
20:15 Wolf Alice
Coalition (also playing at 22:30 at Latest Music Bar)
It’s May and that means Great Escape, Sunshine and END OF MY DEGREE! However, we’ve got a few weeks to go yet, so lets lament on the great month of music that was April.
This playlist includes beauties from Merchandise, Bonobo (my favourite album of the month), Lorde and Gambles. However, my favourite track of the month ‘Supposed to Be’ by Tom Odell isn’t up on Soundcloud, so i’ve posted the YouTube link below for your listening please.
The Great Escape is without a doubt one of my favourite UK festivals. Every year the line-up is incredible and, how better to spend a weekend in May than running around beautiful Brighton seeing some of the best new music the world has to offer. Last year my highlights were Grimes, Palma Violets and Alabama Shakes, and judging by the line-up just announced for this year, 2013 could even top that!
You can view the full line-up of their website, but here is a few of my highlights so far…
Merchandise
Marika Hackman
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Wolf Alice
Tom Odell
Phosphorescent
You can purchase tickets here, and they are only £45 for the weekend. See you there!
With every listen of Tom Odell, you fall more and more in love with his sound. Their is something about the care and passion of his songwriting that makes him a very special prospect for 2013. A piano man is something we’ve not seen for a while and makes a very nice break from the constant stream of acoustic guitar men we’ve had the past couple of years. Next year I expect Tom Odell to go from strength to strength, his music has wide appeal and live he’s good enough to leave everyone in the audience a fan. I very much look forward to watching him grow.
His debut EP ‘Songs from Another Love’ is out now on iTunes and on 7″ vinyl.
You may be aware that every year the BBC produces a list of 15 acts they think are going to make it big in the following year. It’s a pretty essencial list for anyone who follows new music and especially for bloggers.
Last year a bunch of bloggers from around the UK clubbed together and decided to make our own list, and to see the differences between our list and the BBC’s list, and to see whether or not we got it more or less right than the BBC. We’ve decided to do that again and this year we’ve got even more bloggers involved (49). Each blogger chose 5 acts and the results were all tallied up by Breaking More Waves and the top 15 are listed below. I hope you agree that it is a very strong list, and I look forward to seeing how it compares to the BBC one.
In January, a shortlist of 5 acts will be revealed along with our overall winner.
AlunaGeorge
Curxes
Chvrches
Daughter
Haim
Laura Mvula
MØ
Palma Violets
Pins
Randolph’s Leap
Rhye
Savages
Seasfire
The Neighbourhood
Tom Odell
We will now continue with my albums of the year and my own Ones to Watch posts will start shortly after that. There are quite a few similarities with this list!
Last Monday I went to the Slaughtered Lamb, a tiny and very lovely venue in London, to see one of my favourite new artists, Tom Odell. It was a fan show, and tickets were all free but selected through a ticket draw. I was very excited to see the talented 21 year old after seeing the performance of ‘Can’t Pretend’ on one of his YouTube videos. I went with high expectations and definitely did not leave disappointed. His set was brilliant, engaging throughout, performed passionately and his band were incredibly tight. I am so impressed with his songwriting, I think he is one of the best male songwriters we’ve had for a while. His songs sound classic, timeless, and that is so special.
Today Tom Odell releases his debut EP ‘Songs from Another Love’ a 4-track spectacular showcase of his talents. From the catchy opening ‘Another Love’, to the gentle beauty of ‘Sense’, and the epic build of ‘Can’t Pretend’. The forth track is a demo of a song called ‘Stay Tonight’ which sees Odell ditch the piano for a brooding acoustic guitar, his vocal has that same raw power and passion that Marcus Mumford performs with. You can buy the EP from iTunes for only £1.99 here. It will also be released on 7″ vinyl in the next few weeks.
Tom Odell has burst onto the music scene with a very strong start, and I think things are only going to get better and better for him.
When I discover a new artist, you usually get two types of outputs. The first is the homegrown, no manager, no label output. These artists have poor press shots and videos, don’t really seem to know what they are doing, but are armed with heaps of demos, self releases and are gigging every night in of the week to try and get themselves noticed. The other type is like Tom Odell. Tom is very new to the world of music. He only has 500 likes on Facebook and you can only listen to 2 of his songs online. Yet he is already signed to Columbia with a management company, PR and booking agent behind him which has helped him get slots such as supporting Jake Bugg on tour and playing Festival No. 6.
The thing I find odd about these two types of artists, is there doesn’t really seem to be a whole heap of difference in the quality of the music. For both categories, some of it is crap, some is OK and some is AMAZING. The AMAZING stuff usually does get snapped up by a label, sooner or later, take Lucy Rose who was gigging for years and years before a label signed her. This for Lucy has meant that she has allowed her sound time to develop and mature. I have followed her for years and years and haven’t got bored of what she does. She has stayed on her own terms, not rushed into anything, and made it work.
Tom Odell has done the opposite to Lucy. He is too AMAZING. His sound is organic, beautifully crafted and not at all chart worthy. But he’s already signed. And what that means for him will be interesting to see. But for now, enjoy these beautiful tracks he has to offer. I want to cry at ‘Sense’.
