Even in a late '60s rich with groundbreaking psychedelic chamber pop, few albums achieved the same magic as
the Zombies' 1968 masterwork
Odessey and Oracle. Made by a group spread thin by years of toiling with limited success, the recording budget was limited and the process was rushed, and when the public more or less ignored the final product, the frustrated and disillusioned
Zombies broke up. Even under less-than-ideal conditions, however,
Odessey and Oracle tapped into a very specific balance of mysterious, moody vocal harmonies, Baroque instrumentation, joyful sunshine pop, and lovelorn songwriting so sadly beautiful that these 12 tunes remain fascinating and unique over 50 years later. The album kicks off with the jaunty, piano-driven "Care of Cell 44," a narrative song about reuniting with a lover fresh off a stint in prison. It's one of several tracks that juxtapose heavy subject matter with bright, beaming musical accompaniment, in this case gliding Mellotron parts mimicking string arrangements and layers of happy vocal interplay.
Colin Blunstone's smoky, whispering singing accentuates the crushing loneliness of "A Rose for Emily," guides listeners through a mystical haze on the gentle acid rock of "Hung Up on a Dream," and broadcasts unbridled hope and hard-fought optimism on "This Will Be Our Year." While
the Zombies are still playing with the distanced cool of their earlier beat-adjacent hits, every song on
Odessey and Oracle is a prime example of a different type of melodic rock that would go on to become its own subgenre. "Friends of Mine" sets up a blueprint for jangle pop on the whole, with simple open guitar chords and peppy rhythms pushing along a song that hides its melancholy under upbeat major-key mirth. There's something similar going on in the processed vocals and dreamy imagery of "Beechwood Park" or the blissed-out bounce of "I Want Her She Wants Me." They even veer into nightmarish art rock on album outlier "Butchers Tale," a grizzly anti-war song that feels more like a fever dream than anything music related. The world really wasn't ready for
Odessey and Oracle when it came out, as evidenced both by its dismal sales and how the beautifully strange, jazzy, and organ-heavy "Time of the Season" took over a year to catch on and become one of the band's biggest and most enduring hits, well after they'd called it a day the first time around.
Odessey and Oracle's uncommon brilliance wasn't just a standout in
the Zombies' catalog but it also made for a spellbinding musical moment that occupies a similar space as only a few other special albums. It's not an overstatement to assert that
Odessey and Oracle was in conversation with
Pet Sounds,
Revolver, and
Forever Changes as part of a limited echelon of daring and unpredictable rock music that quietly, but certainly, changed the course of everything that followed. ~ Fred Thomas
