Settle Down by Oddity is a good album, but perhaps best described as a grower – it doesn’t immediately grab you, nor does it stand out from the crowd, but the more you listen, the more it grows on you.
The main problem with Settle Down is that it doesn’t open with its strongest song; whilst the title track does play as a good song, it doesn’t really have any memorable hooks and admittedly lives up to its name. It doesn’t open the album with a bang, it sort of quietly begins and doesn’t quite draw you in, which is a shame because it results in a not-so-engaging beginning to an album that does have a lot to give. Settle Down certainly isn’t a bad song, but it would certainly benefit from being placed elsewhere in the tracklisting.
As the album progresses, the flow is a little jerky, but there’s no doubting that Oddity are good at what they do. There’s a lot of energy in the instrumental delivery – highlighted in tracks such as Night Owl and the proggier number Let Me Breathe – and the vocals are stunning, featuring spine-tingling falsetto tones merging with a more ‘standard’ clean delivery.
As a whole, the track ordering does feel like it needs a bit of work and there aren’t really any songs that really make you sit up and pay attention, and whilst the album does become more engaging the more you listen, it doesn’t quite cross the line from being a “good” album to a “great” one.
6/10
