Coming off the massive success of his 2024 album Black Friday, Tom Odell has released the spiritual successor, “Don’t Let Me Go,” a single which tries to find comfort during the end of the world.
Starting off with some guitars before crashing into the waltz drum beat, this single has more of a band sound than the strings of Black Friday while still holding onto the personal and close-up sound of the 2024 album. The song speaks of devotion in spite of the end of the world, and the piano and drum rhythm make the single feel right at home at a wedding. A slight echo in all the instrumentation gives us another sense of an old love song from the 60s, with all the instruments sounding like they were recorded at once in the same room. If Black Friday focused on the fantasy of love, “Don’t Let Me Go” focuses on the everyday displays of love.
This show of affection is emphasised in the lyrics, which are glittered with heartbreaking imagery. Odell is known for using allusion to create characters and the lines “I’ve got my head in your palms / staring at the scars on your arm” show a relationship prevailing through the odds of harm. Continuing on with the connections with his last album are the lyrics “you touch me and I fall apart,” a reference to “Black Friday”‘s line “every time you touch me I feel adrenaline.” In the second chorus, Odell takes aim at the world’s shifting climate with the devastating line “they’re taking your body away / and all I can hopelessly say is don’t let me go.” These lyrics display the focus on characters within Odell’s storytelling that create these deeply emotional and vulnerable lyrics.
Tom Odell is set to take his new music, including “Don’t Let Me Go,” on tour this month across the UK, Europe and North America. If you’re wanting to spend a night crying to some beautiful but heartbreaking music, Tom Odell might just be your ideal artist. Tickets can be found here.
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