ODESZA surprise fans with new song that didn’t make the last album, “Hopeful”

For the last two and a half months, most of the electronic music community has been consumed by Skrillex and his unrelenting domination over the news cycle. He was dropping singles every week, announced an album, announced a show at Madison Square Garden, sold it out, dropped the album, played a show in Times Square, played the show at MSG, dropped another album mid-show. It was unavoidable.

But from the beginning of the year we’ve known that there is so much more. Beyond the albums we know and are looking forward to, the wheels keep turning — cue ODESZA, who this morning surprised fans with a release of “Hopeful,” a track they say didn’t make it onto their last album but “encapsulated our time away from the world while writing the record.”

This one never made the album but we always felt it was special and in a way encapsulated our time away from the world while writing the record. Hopeful is out now.https://t.co/Vq1ulPAulz

— ODESZA (@odesza) February 21, 2023

The song feels similar to many of the synth-laden masterpieces of early M83, with echoing voices and slowly evolving melodies until the full weight of the emotion of the sounds crashes down. As the title suggests, it truly is a song that fills the listener with a feeling of deep hope and possibility.

Listen below.

Photo via Alexander Babarikin