The Zombies
Odessey And Oracle

THE REVIEW

If in the sixties there was an alternative to the Beatles and Beach Boys' mainstream pop, it is certainly to be found in the grooves of this little-known masterpiece by the English band Zombies. Don't let their name fool you, as their music certainly doesn't evoke ghostly landscapes, but rather a sweetened pop with slightly psychedelic shades.

Dated 1968, this album presents us with a band at the end of the line, frustrated by the success that the commercial gods had consistently denied them. But perhaps it's in the darkest and most desperate moments that the best cards are played when you're aware that you're firing the very last shots. The single "Time Of The Season" (included here), which in its opening vaguely reminds of the famous "Stand By Me", although belatedly, made them known to a wide audience and forced them for a short period, when everyone had already taken their own paths, into a sudden, yet unresolved, reunion.

It is quite surprising that, as of today, almost no one remembers them, while the Beatles and Beach Boys have, rightfully, ascended to the status of untouchables. I want to exaggerate: beyond the social impact and the historical role they had, I dare to affirm that the Fab Four, despite having spattered a myriad of formidable singles, cannot boast a long-play work so homogeneous and convincing in its entirety. Following in the footsteps of contemporaneous bands like Kinks or Pretty Things, the Zombies paint a surreal pop fresco composed of twelve songs that could theoretically be potential singles. But perhaps the comparison that most evokes "Odessey And Oracle" is with "Forever Changes" by Love. Two groups linked and remembered for one great album.

Even in the sound, if you will, we can hear echoes of an Arthur Lee on the less psychedelic front, although the Zombies, and in particular Argent and White, since they are the composers, I think they have spent sleepless nights learning every single note of "Pet Sounds". Same vocal inlays, same intertwining of chants and countermelodies with always a first-rate melodious texture adorned with Hammond, mellotron, and chimes to create a pop work destined to leave a mark or be sweetly discovered by the few (many?) who still ignore them.

Alphabetically they should be placed, in a hypothetical ideal discotheque, in the last positions, but we circumvent the obstacle and catalog them chronologically alongside the masters, worthy of standing next to them.