[Album Review] Odds | Nest

Isn’t it great when an album reintroduces itself into your life? Nest made that move last summer where I spent a good chunk of it in our garage.

The roof on Sarah’s car was having some serious issues with rust, and since she was working from home, it seemed like a good idea to take care of it myself. Then the rear brakes in my car started making noise, so I took care of that. Then the front bumper on Sarah’s car cracked when it disagreed with a stop sign, and I took care of that too. In between, oil was changed, new spark plugs were installed, and brake fluid was replaced. Oh my!

Throughout it all, Odds’ Nest was there. I brought a giant stack of CDs into the garage to spin but more often than not I would hit play on it again. Even as frustration from the challenges I gave myself would set in, there was something about its lite “orange” pop-rock vibe that kept me in good spirits.

Plus, the album’s first track Someone Who’s Cool gave me all of the warm fuzzies from my college days. ’95 thru’97 were my HOG WILD years where I was out on my own and before I met Sarah. There were even some evenings that I went to bed WITHOUT reading a passage from the Bible first.

Jokes aside, I remember walking the campus of my Northern Ontario college and hearing the likes of Alanis Morissette and Foo Fighters pour out of many dorm rooms. But it was the lyrics to Someone Who’s Cool floating out from some stranger’s open window that spoke to this socially awkward nerd:

It was the suit that got me the gig
It was the tear that got me the girl
I’m a sheep in this wolf clothing
I’m a picture that I’m holding of someone who is cool

I’m not nearly as suave as the guy in the song, but the sentiment of having to present youself as someone else (better) spoke to me.

I couldn’t knock on the stranger’s door and ask what they were listening to but the song began popping up on the radio enough for me to find out who it was. For some reason though, I never bought the album. I had an incomplete AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and ZZ Top collection to finish first, I guess.

Plus, all of my roommates had a copy of Nest that I could borrow for an evening or two. I remember it being a hit at a few get-togethers. Its 40 minutes of “hard, but not too heavy rock” made for a solid CD to follow up Weezer’s “Blue Album”. Yeah, I was a metalhead then but by the mid-’90s girls were not interested in listening to Flick of the Switch. Remember, I’m a picture that I’m holding of someone who is cool.

Nest made its exit from my life when Sarah and I moved in together. She was the only person besides myself that didn’t have a copy. But, I suppose by then I had burnt out on the album a little. I did eventually get my own copy for $1 at my local mission thrift. I couldn’t tell you for sure when, but it was sometime before 2019. Still, it was that darn Strippers Union album from last year that got me jonesing to hear more from Craig Northey that had me putting Nest on top of the pile I took to the garage.

I know that this post was more of “story time” than a “review”, but I think you got the jist of it. For me, Nest is Odds’ best and would be the one that I recommend people cut their teeth on. I haven’t always been faithful to the album, but it is infectious whenever it finds its way into my life.

An extremely biased: 5/5

The odds are you need more Odds/Craig Northey/Strippers Union in you:
[Album Review] Odds | Neopolitan
[Album Review] Odds | Bedbugs
[Album Review] Odds | Good Weird Feeling
[Album Review] Odds | Nest
[Album Review] Craig Northey | Giddy Up
[Album Review] Northey Valenzuela
[Album Review] Strippers Union | Stripper’s Union Local 518
[Album Review] The New Odds | Cheerleader
[Album Review] Strippers Union | The Deuce
[EP Review] Odds | The Most Beautiful Place On Earth
[EP Review] Odds | Game Face On
[EP Review] Odds | Party Party Party
[Album Review] Strippers Union | 3- The Undertaking