On the outside, Tom Odell is living the wonderful life he sings about on his seventh album. The former BRITs Critics’ Choice winner has hit a prolific patch since becoming an independent artist, with his fourth album in five years. He’s gaining new fans on TikTok, opened for Billie Eilish (a fan of his 2024 album Black Friday) on tour in 2025, and delivered a self-assured tribute to Brian Wilson at Glastonbury a few weeks before this release. But dig deeper into his lyrics and there’s a mass of vulnerability, self-doubt, and sadness at the world. The willingness to bare his soul has led to a deep connection with fans—underlined by the continuing viral success of his 2012 debut single “Another Love” and 2023’s “Black Friday”—and A Wonderful Life finds Odell at his most authentic, even if he still doesn’t love the mid-thirties version of himself. “I’m standing in the mirror/I want to change my skin/Wish that I was taller/Wish that I was thin,” he sings on the early Radiohead-esque “Ugly.” Written on tour in 2024, A Wonderful Life is a snapshot of a hectic period in which Odell balances the messy business of life on the road with love and friendship. There’s a nod to a pre-gig burnout on “Can We Just Go Home Now,” where he’s determined to carry on despite his ills: “Call the doctor up to my hotel room/You see I’ve lost my voice, I’m in a very bad mood/Give me drugs, give me a drip, give me a 20 minute’s rest.” But the show does go on and by the time Odell reaches the album’s closing track, the Leonard Cohen-inspired “The End of Suffering,” there’s a glimpse of light coming through the curtains. “It’s good to see the sun,” sings Odell, suggesting that life might still be a little bit wonderful after all.