Well, we’re back with ‘Odessey and Oracle’ by The Zombies; first up I’m struggling with the spelling.  Who spells Odyssey, Odessey, the Oxford English Dictionary doesn’t.  It says on Wiki the mis-spelling was “the result of a mistake by the designer of the LP cover, Terry Quirk (who was a friend of bassist Chris White)” Doh!

On to the music then, similarly confused but ultimately satisfying, there is a dominant psychedelic vibe with Hammond organs and off key harmonies.  All of the songs are a ‘pop’length and do not “go off on one”, like some recent self indulgent psychedelic albums I could mention. The final track ‘Time of The Season” could do with a bit more in there, I feels like they’ve reigned themselves in there.  Strangely this track was released after The Zombies split and became their biggest worldwide hit, selling 2 million copies.

The standout track is the familiar ‘A Rose for Emily’, a rather sad sing lyrically, recording the loveless life of Emily, who tends her own roses:

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
Not a rose for Emily…

It is all rather dispiriting if we’re being honest about it.  There isn’t a great deal to cheer about later,’Butchers Tale’ is a particularly poignant and sad tale of the trenches, amplified for me I imagine by me having recently watched ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ by Peter Jackson.

So a mournful but excellent selection of tracks, The Zombies split up just before the release of this album, therefore they did not tour it at the time of its release. A solid 8 here in the rating and I’ll listen again for sure.

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Album – Odessey and Oracle,
Artist – The Zombies
Favourite Tracks – A Rose for Emily, Butchers Tale
Released – 1968
Rating – 8.1
Time – 34′ 57″
Tracks – 12

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Source – Tidal
Player/Streamers – Tidal Desktop App on Dell XPS (the iMAC has bitten the dust)
Amplifier/DAC – Questyle CMA 400i
Output – Oppo HA-2
Next Album – 136 – Astral Weeks by Van Morrison