Powderfinger released their fourth studio album, Odyssey Number Five, 25 years ago today on September 4th, 2000.
Not only is it the band’s biggest commercial hit, it wove them into the fabric of Australia’s music history.
After the Brisbane-born band’s first chart-topping album, Internationalist in 1998, Powderfinger made a quick return to music when director Gregor Jordan asked them to pen a song for his upcoming movie Two Hands.
After scrapping an earlier attempt, Powderfinger landed on what many consider their defining anthem, “These Days”. The song made history in 1999 as the first-ever B-side to top triple j’s Hottest 100.
Its success pushed the band toward a more direct and accessible songwriting style that would shape Odyssey Number Five.
Drummer Jon Coghill said they had “never really plan success” and that the album came about as they “tried to get better and better at writing songs.”
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“It’s hard to say that it got better and better, but it got easier, and what we were trying to achieve, we could pull off a bit easier,” he told the ABC.
“Odyssey Number Five felt a bit more natural and the album gels because we were sort of aiming for a very similar thing with all the songs.”
What followed was the band’s most successful album, becoming eight-time platinum certified with beloved tracks such as “My Happiness” and “My Kind of Scene”. Odyssey Number Five would not only launch the band into Europe and the US, but would also score five ARIA awards in 2001 for Album of the Year, Highest Selling Album, Best Rock Album, Best Cover Art, and Best Group.
While simplifying their approach, singer Bernard Fanning still sought to offer political commentary throughout the album. In particular, single “Like a Dog” took aim at the then Howard Liberal Government for their treatment of Indigenous Australians.
While striking a chord with Aussies at the time, the album has continued to see recognition more than two decades after its release. Most recently, “These Days” and “My Happiness landed at #14 and #6 on Triple js hottest 100 Australian Songs, while the album as a whole came in at No. 16 on Rolling Stone Australia’s Top 200 Australian Albums of All Time list.
