Odessey and Oracle

I know this is a highly revered album and I liked it but I felt for its lovely 60s harmonies only some songs captured my attention. Time of the Season is phenomenal and others have intricate instrumentation but it was not solidly good.

This is one perfect album. It is such a psychedelic and baroque album with such a pristine recording and immaculate production that make it the perfect album to include in this list. It was one of the records that I was expecting to be included and so glad that it did!

10/10 [KEEP]

Really good album. Some of the tracks really put me in mind of The Beach Boys vocally. If I get another listen or two in I could see myself going for the full five.

The only real criticism I would have is that Time Of The Season is obviously the big track from this but there was nothing else really like it on the album. I wouldn’t want a full album that’s all the same but maybe a couple more tracks in that style.

Top Track - Time Of The Season

Very nice. British but not in a bad way

En hellig gral for plateselskap som lager samlealbum med 60-tallsmusikk på et stramt budsjett.

For det låter jo akkurat slik man forventer at 60-tallet skal låte. "Time of the Season" er en evig klassiker, og bandet glimter til av og til med "Care of Cell 44" og "Hung Up On A Dream", men mest høres plata generisk ut. Den psychedelikaen går ikke så hardt og det låter mer som en gimmick for å selge helt OK popmusikk. Hør heller på Pink Floyd eller The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band istedet for låter som "Changes".

Det er ikke så mange år siden jeg så dem på Rockefeller (jeg brukte ikke penger på billett, altså), og det som overrasket meg mest var hvor mange som var der i ulike aldre. For dette ER jo ganske gubbete, med unntak av "Time of the Season". Men det handler vel kanskje mest om at markedet for å se 60-tallsband begynner gradvis å bli overtatt av coverbandmarkedet.

I honestly don't remember anything about The Zombies - all I could tell you beyond the fact of their existence was that the first person I knew to get covid got it at a The Zombies show in 2021.

This is pleasant late-60s psych-pop with pretty harmonies and interesting melodies here and there. I remember "Time of the Season," of course, though I never knew what band it was because it didn't interest me much. So I didn't think I'd like this record as much as I did - there's some interesting stuff on here.

So this is a reasonably listenable album, though It got a little monotonous around song #8, and the lack of zombie-related content is disappointing. But it was good for what it was.

I was amused to learn that "Odyssey" is spelled wrong in the album title because the cover artist screwed it up, but the band wanted to be nice and made up a story to make it seem like they'd planned it that way.

3 stars

solidna bitlovština koja je na kraju krajeva ipak bitlovština. bilo lijepo za poslušat, ali ništa posebno u konačnici. vokalne "harmonije" (ne znam kako se to kod nas prevodi) koje svi često hvale nisu nešto što meni odgovara

This is another one of those albums that I originally gave a 4, but upon revisiting it I had to give it a 5. You can't make an album featuring the Mellotron, harpsichord and some delightful little organs and not expect me to love it.

The story about the recording of this album is more interesting than the album itself. "Time of the Season" is a classic, but the rest is pretty contrived psych-pop leaning heavily on style trends of the time - Donovan, The Beatles, Beach Boys... if I listened again I'm sure a Dylan tribute would rise from the swamp. It's not bad, though; not annoying or offensive or difficult to get through. It's nice, just not impressive.

Lots of Beatles/beach boy vibes
Time of the season sounds like stand by me

3.5

Audiences and critics in 1968 must have been really spoilt for classics if they felt they could give this album a miss. It’s a baroque psychedelic gem.

the kinks if they were awesome

I am genuinely surprised that their label could fumble this album so bad that it wasn't well received when it was released. It sounds like a mix of the Beach Boys and the Beatles and there's not a bad track on here. It's just a solid psychedelic baroque pop album from front to back!

Pretty cool, but some songs are a little repetitive.

low 4/5

If there is ever a band that gained a cult following from one album alone, it would be the Zombies. Frustrated by their lack of success, they signed to CBS Records and recorded their second studio album at Abbey Road Studios. Tempers flared as the band worked under a tight budget, with morale hitting an all-time low at the end of the sessions. After the first two singles failed to chart and demand for their live appearances dwindled, the Zombies split up. Months after their breakup, Odessey and Oracle was released in the UK, and it was musician Al Kuper's convincing of the album's merits to his superiors at Columbia Records that the record had a second chance in the US market. "Time of the Season" became a sleeper hit, and the legend of the Zombies started to grow.

After giving this album a listen, I can hear the dedication in the songcraft and production. After the Beach Boys put out Pet Sounds, and the Beatles put out Sgt. Pepper's, the Zombies had their baroque pop record. The sound is lush and ornate, with Rod Argent's elegant work behind the Hammond organ and Mellotron, the bouncy rhythm section from Chris White and Hugh Grundy, eclectic guitar lines from Paul Atkinson, and Colin Blunstone's breathy vocal delivery supported by a multitude of harmonies. The overall style is very psychedelic and avant-garde, paired with lyrics that present as a series of dream sequences in the mind, with vivid imagery used to describe the passion for love felt by the narrator, only broken up partway with the wartorn conflict eloquently described on "Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914)". Even in the argument could be made for more varied subject matter, the execution makes up for any shortcomings.

I honestly couldn't find any fault with Odessey and Oracle. The Zombies would reunite decades later to revel in the glory that this album brought.

eh bacaninha, bem feito e menos psicodélico do que eu esperava

mas nada demais não. divertidim!!

I saw some of the comments saying this is something like "baroque-leaning psych pop". This is mostly too light and pop for my tastes. Oh, Time of the Season, ya, even I know this one, was used in movies and stuff. It's good, but ya, the rest is forgettable.

Much better

Really dig it, probably a 3.5, but not a common ‘go to’ genre so giving it a 3 for now. Needs more relistens.

One good song does not a good album make. It sold poorly when released....because it sucks ass. Too many of these "sold poorly on release, but garnered a huge cult following later on" albums on this list...

Favorite songs: Time of the Season, This Will Be Our Year, Care of Cell 44, Friends of Mine

Least favorite songs: A Rose for Emily

2/5