Track Of The Day 29/11 – Tom Odell

'Stay Tonight' (demo)

Does the world need another solo songwriter?

After all, it's not as if we're suffering from a shortage. There they are, strutting around with their beards and waistcoats, clutching an acoustic guitar as their final line of defence against a severely wounded heart.

What we do, need, though, is a bit of passion, a slice of sincerity. Thankfully, Tom Odell has those attributes in spades and is on hand to turn expectations on their head. Prodigiously talented – he's barely out of his teens – the songwriter recently tied up a deal with Columbia.

Hailing from Chichester, Tom Odell really found his voice in Brighton, where he flung himself head first into the city's close knit music scene. “I just didn’t stop writing songs for an entire year" he mused recently. "I used to stroll around Brighton with this massive keyboard and just go to these open mic’s all around town – and it was so demoralizing, but also really good for me”.

Debut EP 'Songs From Another Love' is the result. A powerful, tantalising glimpse of what Tom Odell is capable of, it has already won fans across the country with its mature arrangements, sensitive lyrics and gentle honesty.

Taking part in 'Later… With Jools Holland' this week ClashMusic have been gifted a demo version of 'Stay Tonight'. Raw, slightly less polished than its studio counterpart, it's a glimpse of the talent which graced those open mic stages in Brighton.

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