Chart-Topping Heartthrob Tom Odell to Perform At Beijing Exhibition Center Aug 18

There'll be nary a dry eye at the Beijing Exhibition Center on August 18, after Tom Odell finishes serenading the crowd with one earnest, heartstring-tugging ballad after another.

Even before the millennial piano man came on the seen with his 2013 debut LP Long Way Down, most of England's music insiders were already swooning over him. That all began with a signing by none other than electro-pop queen Lily Allen, who compared Odell's stage presence to that of David Bowie. Having a record deal on Allen's In The Name Of label boded well, and the hype just kept growing when he was awarded a BRIT Critics Choice trophy in 2012 and then debuted at number one on the UK album sales charts with Long Way Down.

At the time, Tom Lamont (one of my all time favorite rock journalists) profiled Odell in The Guardian, describing an onstage mastery ("he convulses impressively on his stool") that's undercut by offstage anxiety ("though there was great assurance about him at soundcheck, that seems to have melted away" during their subsequent Q&A at a pub). That said, any shy-yet-talented bloke would surely squirm if a journalist was pressing him for details about his highly publicized date with Taylor Swift.

All that scrutiny and success during the period of his debut was, sadly, a bit blemished by the mixed reviews that Long Way Down received. Some outlets praised the LP but others griped, like the The Independent, which complained that Odell sang in an "overwrought cry-baby warble." The consensus, however, seemed to be that Odell would appeal to fans of folk-pop stars Mumford and Sons, though his visible talent had yet to be honed into a style of his own. The NME were even bigger haters, cheekily describing the LP as “five parts Adele, four parts Keane ... and 500 parts Marcus Mumford’s arse”

However, the average critical response to his 2016 followup, Wrong Crowd, was much stronger, with Clash Music lauding the sophomore LP's "unmistakably catchy piano riffs and heart wrenchingly honest lyrics." And the snarky writers at the NME went on to write about how Odell redeemed himself performing live at Glastonbury in June of last year. This leads us to believe that cynical fellows who dread being dragged to this gig by their better halves might very well be pleasantly surprised by Odell's superior live playing, though those blokes still might be unimpressed by how he makes all the ladies in attendance swoon.

Tom Odell will perform at the Beijing Exhibition Center on Aug. 18. Tickets are now available for purchase at Damai here and range from RMB 280-1080, depending on the seat. That entire Damai page is in Chinese, but we'll update this blog once an English ticket seller pops up.

Photos: qromag.com, birminghammail.co.uk, NME, Daimai