Odessey and Oracle

Pretty standard 60s psychedelic pop with an absolute all timer of a final track

This was a wonderful album. I love some baroque pop, and this is a shining example of the genre, with dreamy melodies & harmonies, and some unconventional yet always enjoyable instrumentation. The songwriting itself is quite sophisticated, with some great melodic change ups and good use of layered vocals and instrument tracks. As an example, I particularly enjoyed the way the third chorus in Maybe After He's Gone strips down to just the simple piano track and the harmonized vocals. Speaking of vocals, the lead vocals of Colin Blunstone and the backing vocals of the band really make the record; there's just something about Blunstone's voice and singing style that I find very captivating — soft and elegant, yet never boring.

Favourite tracks: Care of Cell 44, A Rose For Emily, Butcher's Tale, This Will Be Our Year

The Zombies! Yeah! When you are a Beatles devotee, like I’m sure many of us are, it can be a relief to encounter other British Invasion bands, like picking up a novel after studying scripture. You see other possibilities, even if some of them seem incomplete. In this album you’ve got the psychedelia and the organ and the haunting harmonies — all stuff I expected from what I already knew. But there’s also a songwriting style that’s surprisingly contemporary on the tracks I hadn’t heard before. There were times when I thought I was hearing a group that grew up listening to Belle and Sebastian playing in a throwback style. Exactly what I wanted but also different from what I expected.

Also I’ve been listening to “Time of the Season” my whole life and I still can’t decide if it’s more sexy or spooky, and I’m just fine with that.

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

3.5

I've got this album in my collection, and I don't listen to it enough.

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.

Not bad overall. 3/5

Easy 5 stars.

My wedding first dance song appears on this album.
Hard to be rational about this one.
6 stars out of 5.

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

Thy Bombies.

It bored me.

Alright, Jen, the 1001 randomizer machine heard your peace and love request and served up this peach of an album.

For most of the songs, I kept waiting for a jarring voice to interrupt mid-track and say, “all of our agents are busy right now, but your call is important to us. Please stay on the line and your call will be answered by the next available agent.” Yes, this is just on-hold music, if it was more progressive and had a lead singer.

Exhibit B in what is becoming a true question for me with this list: Do we have albums like this because everyone was on drugs in the 60s … or was everyone on drugs in the 60s because we have albums like this?

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!!

The Zombies’ sound blends elements of The Beatles, The Monkees, The Beach Boys, and at times, early pieces of Queen. The harmonies are impeccable and they cover a wide range on this album - from classic barbershop-style pop to ominous psychedelic rock. Not really ‘fuzzy guitar’ psychedelic rock, it’s more the organs, glockenspiels, and woodwinds kind.

I had high hopes for this album after the Young Rascals album I reviewed a few weeks ago. This album is a perfectly cliche late 60s pop/rock album, but it leans more pop and that's not what I wanted. “Time Of The Season” is a classic, and there’s a reason it’s used so often in tv/movies to quickly establish a scene in the late 60s, but beyond that, there's not much here for me.

Why did I never realize the 'good morning to you' song is about someone in prison

A better Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.

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.