Liverpool Sound and Vision 8.5/10
The consensus of inspiration always seems to be loudly asserted that the Muse requires the far-flung adventure or in-depth travelling life in which to gain inspiration to write, and whilst meeting new people, seeing impressive innovative in action and appreciating it with all your senses firing, occasionally all you need is to be able to look outside your own front door, to be able to witness the world turning from the comfort of a front-row seat beside your window; we can all find the Muse without going too far, we can all be part of a story going on down our street.
Preserving the scenes outside your house, taking stock of the noises you hear from the adjoining neighbours’ homes, you soon become part of your own musical painting, an art form taking place within the community and it is one that the musician Tom Odell takes to heart in a gigantic way in his album, Jubilee Road.
In every real time drama that unfolds, there is the illumination of fiction just bursting at the seams waiting to be unleashed, the constant sneeze heard through the paper-thin walls is not just a man with a cold but someone developing a disease in which to wipe out half the world, the woman across the road who you see draw her curtains every day at two, is not just someone relishing in her privacy but is instead a spy signalling her handler with news, your neighbours are not just there to say hello to, they are there to be figures with past upon the canvas on which you draw.
It is in the end perhaps a form of close control, of seeing the detail in the immediate and with Tom Odell as the director looking through the lens of this urban play, writing, singing and producing the municipal-sounding concerto, then songs such as If You Wanna Love Somebody, Son Of An Only Child, You’re Going To Break My Heart Tonight, Queen of Diamonds and the astoundingly beautiful finale which encapsulates the album’s strength, Wedding Day, all find ways to lift the soul of the listener, with charm and insightful poise granted to the experience.
A marvellously presented album, Tom Odell outdoes himself in Jubilee Road, a festival of magnificence all conceived from the local Muse.
Ian D. Hall