Track Listing

1. Care Of Cell 44
2. Rose For Emily
3. Maybe After He's Gone
4. Beechwood Park
5. Brief Candles
6. Hung Up On A Dream
7. Changes
8. I Want Her She Wants Me
9. This Will Be Our Year
10. Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914)
11. Friends Of Mine
12. Time Of The Season
13. I'll Call You Mine
14. She Loves The Way They Love Her
15. Imagine The Swan
16. Smokey Day
17. If It Don't Work Out
18. I Know She Will
19. Don't Cry For Me
20. Walking In The Sun
21. Conversations Off Floral Street
22. I Want You Back Again
23. Gotta Get A Hold Of Myself
24. Goin' Out Of My Head
25. She Does Everything For Me
26. Nothing's Changed
27. I Could Spend The Day
28. Girl Help Me

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18542 in Music
• Released on: 2007-06-04
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .16 pounds

CD Description
UK 1960s psych-pop scarcely gets more seminal than this. The Zombies' '68 swan song is their crowning achievement, a Day-Glo, baroque-tinged masterpiece on a par with PET SOUNDS or SGT. PEPPER'S. Like the Beatles, the Zombies had left their Merseybeat sound far behind by the late '60s, pursuing instead a moodier, more sophisticated sound. "Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914)", a grimly haunting accordion-led WWI narrative would have been unimaginable on an earlier Zombies record, and the simmering, ominous classic "Time of the Season" is as far from "She's Not There" as "Strawberry Fields Forever" is from "She Loves You".
Still, the peerless pop craftsmanship of keyboardist Rod Argent and bassist Chris White (the group's principal songwriters) makes for plenty of richly melodic gems, as realized by Colin Blunstone's breathy,angelic voice. The delicately beautiful "A Rose for Emily" and the sunny, optimistic "This Will Be Our Year" can melt even the coldest of hearts. The 2004 reissue's bonus cuts (equally as entrancing as the initial tracks) and top-notch remastering further secure ODESSEY & ORACLE's status as an absolute must-own.

Customer Reviews

The British Beach Boys - and so much more
The Zombies were not your standard, down-and-dirty, working-class rockers. They were a quintet of polite English schoolboys from the provincial town of St Albans, Hertfordshire, who turned professional aged 19.

Their crowning glory, recorded at the end of 1967, was Odessey and Oracle, probably the closest we have to a British 'Pet Sounds', the precision 3-part harmonies of lead singer Colin Blundstone and songwriters Rod Argent and Chris White forming the album's distinctive sound. Every track is an unforgetable gem - from the tweeness of 'Friends of Mine' to White's mournful vocal on the haunting 'Butchers Tale'; from the pure pop balladry of 'This Will Be Our Year' to the psychedlic period-piece 'Beechwood Park'. And, of course, we mustn't forget the monster hit single 'Time Of The Season'. No wall of sound or wailing guitar solos here - just crafted pop at its very very best.

On an odessey
Many bands (the Beatles, the Beach Boys) at least dabbled in psychedelica, but the Zombies are often overlooked. For the 30th anniversary of "Odessey and Oracles," the Zombies' best album was rereleased in a new form, proving that their enchanting psychedelic pop has aged exceeedingly well.

The Zombies were unusually good at taking perky, sweet, lush music and wrapping it around a more serious song, such as the upbeat "Care of Cell 44" (guy writing to his jailed girlfriend), or the lovely "A Rose For Emily," a poignant little song that tells of a lonely woman doomed to stay lonely. "And as the years go by/she will grow old and die/The roses in her garden fade away/Not one left for her grave..."

But the Zombies aren't all sadness wrapped in happy music. There are perky songs about being happy in love, losing a love and hoping she'll return, and reminiscing about "golden days and golden summer nights." The album ends on a reassuring note with the laid-back "Time of the Season," which sounds like the ultimate hippie anthem.

I have no memories of the 60s, since I was only born in the eighties. But "Odessey and Oracle" gives a rosy glow to that era,. Psychedelic flair minus the hazy, and every song is a gem. Though "Time of the Season" was the sleeper hit from the album, it's not the best or catchiest song on here -- it's just one of many excellent ones.

Rod Argent was definitely an outstanding songwriter. He was able to create atmospheric and beautiful songs with very simple writing ("Brief candles in her mind/bright and tiny gems of memory"). Perhaps his finest moment here is "I knew he when summer was her crown/and autumn sad/how brown her eyes," as a kick-off to a colorful look at a woman compared to all the seasons.

Colin Blunstone's vocals were well-suited to the music: a bit husky, quite pleasant and mellow. The music itself was generally based on guitar, gentle drums, pretty piano, and wavering Mellotron, with a bit of accordian coming in in one song. There's a rich interweaving of many instruments, in all sorts of pop music. Some is almost classical in tone, some is uptempo stuff that is perfect for the radio.

The Zombies were in peak form in "Odessey and Oracle," churning out some of the purest pop music ever. As sweet and exquisite as it was in the 1960s.

Buried British Pop Treasure!
I can't enthuse about this enough since buying it last month! Odyssey and Oracle is a quite literally a revelation and worthy of all the british Pet Sounds hype! I can see why Paul Weller rates it so highly - sort of psychedelic folk rock but so catchy and poppy and not a bad track in twelve! Blunstone's plangent vocals and Argent's swirling organ and White's bounding bass the whole thing's a summer joy tinged with autumnal melancholy. A rose for Emily is as good as Eleanor Rigby and as moving, Beechwood park and Brief candles are incredible hymns to memory and loss and Time of the Season as a vintage slice of sixties psychedelia. These guys are up there with The Beatles and The Beach Boys let alone The Kinks and Small Faces who never made an album as good as this! I've run out of hyperbole for this wonderful life enhancing record and they came from the Ancient Roman hub of Britain St Albans! Buy this expanded edition ( unbelievably the 16 extra tracks are good too! ) and go and see 'em at Hammersmith at the end of the month play it live for the last time. Then you'll be playing it for the rest of your life - I know I will.