GRAMMY-nominated electronic groundbreakers ODESZA are teasing their eagerly anticipated forthcoming album ‘The Last Goodbye’ (out July 22 via Foreign Family Collective/Ninja Tune, preorder HERE) today with their otherworldly latest release, “Wide Awake” featuring Charlie Houston.
Charlie’s pristine voice opens the song while an effectively understated percussive section enters the fold, followed by the swirling of distant, illusive vocals and deftly layered electronic flourishes. It feels born from another universe, rising and falling with its intensity while remaining thoughtful and compelling throughout.
Of the song, ODESZA comments “What we like about “Wide Awake” is it feels like it encapsulates a lot of things we enjoy in one track: lots of percussive elements wrapped in emotive chords, with swirling distorted synths and leads, all centered around Charlie’s incredible vocal. It’s one of our favorites from the record and something we come back to a lot.”
‘The Last Goodbye’ is set to be the duo’s most ambitious album to date. A project rife with brightness and emotion, nostalgic yet rooted in the present, it serves as a sweeping sonic experience that speaks to themes of connection, reminiscence, and the impact we impart on one another. Pre-release tracks showcase the depth of the album, with the title track “The Last Goodbye (feat. Bettye LaVette)” being praised by the NY Times who said it “brings some Slavic melancholy to four-on-the-floor dance music” while fellow songs “Love Letter (feat. The Knocks)” features a dynamic, emotive vocal refrain that serves as a personal proclamation, speeding amongst curtains of orchestral synths, the mesmerizing “Behind The Sun” includes a beautiful vocal sample from Iranian singer Simin Ghanem’s “Seeb”, and “Better Now (feat. MARO)” is a study in delicately balancing ambient soundscapes and instrumentation.
ODESZA sold over 350k tickets during the initial 72-hour ticket on-sale period of their upcoming "The Last Goodbye Tour", reaffirming the Seattle duo as one of modern music live performance juggernauts. Three nights at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, two nights at LA’s The Forum, and two nights at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium are just a few of the notable and massive sell-out shows. Full dates HERE.
Additionally, ODESZA is partnering with environmental nonprofit and music industry veterans REVERB to make their tour more environmentally sustainable and to engage fans to take action for people and the planet. Not only will the tour be carbon negative, eliminating substantially more greenhouse gas pollution than the tour creates, there will also be engagements at each show to encourage fans to get involved to take action against climate change.
With over 5 billion total streams, ODESZA have masterfully reemerged to remind the world what has made the duo of Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight cornerstones of the modern electronic landscape. Their last album ‘A Moment Apart’ was not only a commercial success (going gold and debuting at no. 3 on the Billboard 200), but it also earned critical acclaim including two GRAMMY nominations and praise from the likes of NPR, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Complex, Consequence and more.
The duo has cultivated a diehard fanbase of massive proportions: known for their groundbreaking, awe-inspiring and immersive live performance, which reached 2.85m+ fans over the course of their ‘A Moment Apart’ tour. They also have had headline performances at the likes of Coachella, Lollapalooza & more, as well as performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Conan, and launched their own music festival SUNDARA in Riviera Maya, Mexico in 2019.
