26. September 2025
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Media Review

Tom Odell – A Wonderful Life

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Tom Odell - A Wonderful Life

Tom Odell - A Wonderful Life
4.5

Rating

 4.5/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Lovely, very personal storytelling
  • Good songwriting and nice plots

Sometimes, I almost feel guilty when an artist makes his debut appearance on Flyctory.com. That was also my mood when I started working on the review of A Wonderful Life, the seventh studio album by Tom Odell. He had some globally extremely successful songs already. Let’s have a listen into his 5th September 2025 release.

 

Tom Odell – About The Artist

Thomas Peter Odell is a British artist, who was born on 24th November 1990 in Chichester, England. The singer-songwriter partially grew up in Auckland in New Zealand. In 2012, he turned into a professional musician, releasing his debut EP Songs from Another Love (2012), which later lead to his debut album Long Way Down (2013). The debut single comes with an outstanding record. Another Love has more than three billion (!) streams on Spotify. Despite it only topped the charts in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, it received 12 platinum records in Australia, 6 in the United Kingdom and eleven golden records in Germany. The album topped the British and Dutch charts.

Even though the following songs and albums could not connect to that, Odell stayed popular and successful, especially in his domestic market, where none of his albums peaked worse than seventh. In 2024, he had another chart-topping song in (Dutch) Belgium, Black Friday (Pretty Like The Sun), recoded with Lost Frequencies. The same year, he also released his most recent album so far, Black Friday.

 

Tom Odell – A Wonderful Life – Track by Track

The ten track album lasts 39 minutes.

1. Don’t Let Me Go

A Wonderful Life starts with two songs Tom Odell already shared before the album release. Don’t Let Me Go starts with the typical mixture of folk, pop and indie elements. Odell’s melancholic voice feels like so familiar. The English artist has a lovely way to present the song with his voice. After a slow start, the opener becomes more and more melodic and energetic. A lovely listen.

2. Don’t Cry, Put Your Head On My Shoulder

The rhythm of Don’t Cry, Put Your Head On My Shoulder feels to suggest a pop-ish and uplifting song from the very beginning. However, once the vocals are joining, the track is slowing down slightly and the second listen of the record rather moves towards a gentle and fine narration. Of course, Odell adds a certain twist and plot to it. This also includes rather present strings in later parts. You just have to enjoy his songwriting excellence.

3. Prayer

The ballad-style, thoughtful Prayer also underlines the indie character of Odell’s music. Nonetheless, the strumming guitar and the violins in the background give a gentle, intense atmosphere in the background. A lovely, gentle melody which is full of musical beauty.

4. Can We Just Go Home Now

Can We Just Go Home Now feels to be quite a contrast to the predecessor. The song is not only significantly more rocking, it is also rather short. One of just two tracks which are less than three minutes. Nonetheless, the lamenting indie folk-rock song does leave a mark.

5. Why Do I Always Want The Things That I Can’t Have

Why Do I Always Want The Things That I Can’t Have – I guess everybody had a situation in life where you asked this question to yourself. Tom Odell does so at the end of the first half of his album. At the beginning, there are just the keys and the artist and the artist himself. However, the mental struggle is reflected with increasing energy and arrangement. This does not mean that the very personal, honest character of the track is fading, though. Overall, this one does impress.

6. Wonderful Life

The title track of the album is next. The decent drumming in the background almost has a jazzy style. The song itself, however, is a melodically nice and gentle track initially. Similar to many songs before, it increases its atmosphere over time. No surprises (any more), but a really nice development.

7. Ugly

Ugly is another song which has been featured before the album release. The song is rather in the folk pop range. Again, there is an increase in intensity in here. However, at Ugly it is a rather sudden increase, which leads to a rather desperate feeling. Odell easily masters the two very different styles on the vocal side.  And the gentle drums at the beginning of the song turn into stomping beats.

8. Strange House

Strange House is the second “shortie” on the album. However, after the rocking Can We Just Go Home Now, this one takes the style of a piano ballad. A beautiful and straight listen.

9. Can Old Lovers Ever Just Be Friends?

The penultimate Can Old Lovers Ever Just Be Friends? is a lovely and rather mainstream-alike folk-pop song. The instrumentals, especially towards the end of the song, are indeed worth mentioning. One of the most present songs of the whole A Wonderful Life album.

10. The End of Suffering

The album feels to directly flow into The End of Suffering. The song starts with the fairy tale-alike, laid back style of many songs of the album. There is some crescendo in the song, but it is not as intense as in other songs of the album.

 

Tom Odell – A Wonderful Life – Spotify

Here is the album on Spotify:

 

Tom Odell – A Wonderful Life – Track by Track

Tom Odell’s 2025 album does not feature another song which is even close to his classic Another Love. However, there are just a few artists, who nowadays can regularly release successful songs at that level. Nonetheless, A Wonderful Life is not disappointing. The album illustrates the artists’ songwriting and storytelling skills. It comes with lovely moments on the vocal and the melodic side. Thus, I really like the 2025 – very personal and intimate – style of his music as well.

Favorite Song: Can We Just Go Home Now

 

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