Alexander Babarikin
By interpolating recordings from their youth, ODESZA produce a song-cycle of candid and captivating vignettes depicting the experiences that led them to this moment.
They say you can't connect the dots looking forward—you can only connect them looking backwards. And in the case of ODESZA's long-awaited fourth album, The Last Goodbye, memories are the key.
There's a reason why longtime fans find solace in ODESZA's music. It has long functioned as a nostalgia machine which metaphysically makes us recall the last vestiges of the things that made us most happy.
But what really makes ODESZA's timeless music so special is its profound ability to nestle into the blueprints of our lives, tethering itself to the charts that dictate our growth. And in doing so, ODESZA and their fans mature in lockstep, like family members.
The Last Goodbye is a testament to that familial bond.
For far too long, touring musicians—especially DJs—have been expected to masquerade as caricatures of themselves, toiling through a faux-rockstar lifestyle where vulnerability is akin to kryptonite. ODESZA's Clayton Knight and Harrison Mills splinter that axiom with The Last Goodbye, a deeply personal display of bravura.
Throughout the album, ODESZA interpolate recordings from their youth, offering fans an intimate window into their lives. It starts within a nanosecond as the album's lilting intro track, "This Version of You," cinematically floats into focus. Here, a haunting soliloquy from Julianna Barwick encapsulates ODESZA's coming-of-age: "This version of you / Simply becomes real."
What follows is a song-cycle of candid and captivating electronic music. Each track is a vignette that forms a latticework entwined by Mills' and Knight's unearthed recordings, resulting in a mosaic of the experiences that led them to this moment.
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"5 years later and we're here," ODESZA said in a joint statement. "Without those we love, those we’ve lost and everyone in between, this album wouldn’t exist. Time may continue to move forward but the imprint of those we’ve come to know will always echo through. The Last Goodbye is a reminder that there is no last goodbye."
ODESZA's new album, "The Last Goodbye," is their first since 2017's Grammy-nominated "A Moment Apart" LP.
Tonje Thilesen
One of the album's undeniable highlights is "All My Life," wherein ODESZA's classic fluttering arpeggios ebb and flow with a languid swirl. The same can be said of the soulful "North Garden," a blissed-out jam that could soundtrack a frolic through a daffodil meadow à la Big Fish.
The Last Goodbye also serves as ODESZA's most explorative record yet. The duo embrace house music like never before, infusing their signature sounds into thumping four-on-the-floor arrangements that range from euphoric ("The Last Goodbye") to brooding ("I Can't Sleep").
Perhaps no track is more emblematic of this shift than "Equal" (with Låpsley), a stunning breakbeat cut that is as spellbinding as it is chaotic. The ensuing song, "Healing Grid," is a smooth palette cleanser and a billet-doux to ODESZA's fans: "It's all about you," croons a warm refrain.
ODESZA are now set to take The Last Goodbye on the road for a massive amphitheater tour, which kicks off July 29th with a sold-out, three-day hometown takeover at Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena.
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