Album Review “A Moment Apart” by ODESZA

Emma Hoffman|January 21, 2018

“A Moment Apart” is what I would call a gateway album to electronic music. Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight — a duo more commonly known as Odesza — released two albums prior to “A Moment Apart”. With my general familiarity with Odesza, I thought I could predict exactly what this album would sound like. Instead, I was thoroughly surprised.

Odesza has started a new chapter in their career and begun experimenting in all aspects of their brand. The once recognizable warm color scheme filled with deep oranges and vibrant purples that covered their albums and merchandise was replaced with cold blues, navys, and grays. However, “A Moment Apart’s” album art wasn’t the only thing that had changed.

The musicians played with new sounds and instruments, incorporating horns into their music which is more bass driven than ever before. “Sun Models,” off of their “In Return” album and Odesza’s most popular song, has a very upbeat sound with soprano vocals and high pitched electronic noises. Most of Odesza’s previously released songs were eerily similar to this, in particular “A Moment Apart.” However, every song has a much deeper sound, classifying most of the songs on their album as a bigger part of the future bass genre, contrary to their once indietronica sound.

When I sat down and took a listen to the whole album, I was utterly blown away by how much I enjoyed it, even the intro captivated me. This, of course, doesn’t mean the album is perfect. There is only one song I deliberately skip, which is “This Floors And Tall Ceilings.” It’s a very dramatic song, the violins in it detract from the overall sound. On the other end of the spectrum, my favorite song off the album would have to be “Late Night.” “Late Night” is a song you’re really able to get lost in and just forget about the world.

A lot of the album’s songs either have no vocals or few lyrics, so I often listen to it while doing homework or commuting. It’s useful to fill the silence but not distract you.

“A Moment Apart” has also been nominated for two Grammys this year — Best Dance/Electronic Album of the year, and the featured song “Line of Sight” as Best Dance Recording.

This album can be found on most music platforms (including Spotify, Apple Music, and Soundcloud) and official music videos for “Across the Room,” “Line of Sight,” and “Late Night” have been released.

Track List: