We’re lucky enough to be living in a time where the wide range of music accessibility and the vast collection of constantly multiplying styles and subgenres work in a circle of generative creativity that yields an ever-expanding plethora of good music. Every time we’re on the internet, we’re exposed to a new artist delivery a new sound that, although nothing we’ve ever heard before, fits itself right into the center of what we enjoy and crave the most. 

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Today, that artist is 21-year-old multidimensional talent, ODIE, and the silky sounds he’s delivery come neatly wrapped in his boldly couth and creative debut album, ANALOGUE. Though making himself known here and there with a handful of single releases over the past couple years, ANALOGUE is ODIE’s long-awaited, lifetime-in-the-making introduction to the world. And if first impressions are as powerful as people say, ODIE is off to a quick start. 

 

A son of Nigerian immigrants with roots in Toronto and an adolescence spent in the Bay Area, it’s a blanket understatement to say that his influences are many. But a blanket statement is really the only kind that can be made to describe someone whose range is as wide as ODIE. Growing up in a household soundtracked by Sunny Ade, Fela Kuti, and Michael Jackson, a youthful foundation in a city that now dominates the hip-hop and R&B charts, and a coming-of-own in the creative sphere of San Francisco all blend their own roles into ODIE’s larger picture.

 

But of all his influences, one seems to shine through the most. There are strong and undeniable parallels between ODIE and the sounds and style of a young Kid Cudi. The emotional undertone, the approachable rap verses, the relatable lyricism, and the vocals that could easily justify a career strictly R&B come together and bring with them flashbacks of Dat Kid From Cleveland and Man on the Moon. It’s not to say that ODIE isn’t boldly original, simply one of the rare artists, like Cudi, able to so seamlessly blend elements of hip-hop, R&B, and acoustic overtop oftentimes solemn or low-tempo vibes.

 

ANOLOGUE is an impressive and innovative masterpiece that feels more like the work of a practiced veteran than it does the debut of a kid, but old souls often dictate the direction of young music, and it seems that ODIE, with the help of his first impression, are here to guide the youth.