Odyssey Number Five is the fourth studio album by the Australian rock band Powderfinger, produced by Nick DiDia and released on 4 September 2000 by Universal Music. It won the 2001 ARIA Music Award for Highest Selling Album, Best Group and Best Rock Album. The album is the band's shortest yet, focusing on social, political, and emotional issues that had appeared in prior works, especially Internationalist. The album produced four singles. The most successful, "My Happiness", reached #4 on the ARIA Singles Chart, won the 2001 ARIA Music Award for "Single of the Year", and topped Triple J's Hottest 100 in 2000. The album also featured "These Days", which topped Triple J's Hottest 100 in 1999. The album ranked at number 1 in Triple J's Hottest 100 Australian Albums of All Time poll in 2011. Many critics lauded the album as Powderfinger's best work, one stating that the album was "the Finger's Crowning Glory"; however, others were critical of the "imitation" contained in the album. Overall, the album won five ARIA Music Awards in 2001 and was certified platinum seven times, and earned an eighth in 2004. Odyssey Number Five was Powderfinger's first album to chart in the United States, as well as the most successful to chart in the U.S. and the band extensively toured North America to promote its release.
Odyssey Number Five by Powderfinger is an ok rock album with lots of slower songs. Not bad or awful, but also not outstanding in any way.
Really solid rock album. I just sat back and chilled to this and it made for a really nice evening.
Enjoyed the album. But no outliers really
Catchy in places but I was never a huge Powderfinger fan. They had some bangers on earlier albums, but by this point they were going pretty soft and getting very samey. Still, my happiness is a great song. These days has a really great hook, too. Always been a fan of that song. 4/5.
Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Waiting for the sun, My happiness, The metre, Up and down and back again, Thrilloilogy
I am a big Powderfinger fan, for a non-fan, but the best album from any of them is Bernard Fanning's solo debut Tea & Sympathy. This album is good but has holes - even Fanning thinks a couple songs are so-so. The last 3 songs in particular drag and the opener Waiting for the Sun is sort of up and down. They nail melodic melancholy perfectly with the second song My Happiness (perhaps their most well-known), which feeds perfectly into The Metre and later My Kind of Scene and These Days. All beautiful tracks. Like a Dog is the one song that doesn't quite fit this album, being more rocking, but it's solid. I mean, the best songs are 5s but overall this album is closer to a 3.5. I'm rounding up to 4 because I do really like these guys.
Another just fine album
A couple of ok singles, but very same-ish, and is that kind of rock that doesn’t really rock at all. Very safe and very plain.
I listened but I didn’t hear. It can’t have been too bad though. Not as bad as being fired. Yay me.
Rock alternativo. Ni fu ni fa.
Okay !
October 14, 2025 HL: "The Meter", "Like a Dog", "These Days" First I'm hearing Powderfinger, of Brisbane. Decent, sometimes great pop-rock with the occasional singalong chorus. I give it a 7 outta 10
I've not come across these guys before and although formulaic the songs hit me this morning in a good way. There's some interesting sounds here.
Odyssey Number Five is a bit dull for my tastes, too safe, too soft rock, and the vocals are a bit pitchy and annoying. 2/5, it's just boring. Give me Airbourne if you're giving me some Australian rock.
This is a bit like if music was soundwaves arranged in a specific way.
Just kinda bland early-aughts alternative? I don’t have much to say here, nothing bad to say about the execution or instrumentals but it seems like the kind of music you’d hear playing softly in a waiting room and think oh yeah, those guys.