The Zombies – Odessey and Oracle (1969)

This is their second album, and for a long time their last. After an initial rush of success in 1964 with ‘She’s Not There’ – still a great song – their fortunes floundered.  Follow-up singles were never received so well and by 1966 Decca had dropped them.  Considered one last throw of the dice the band, featuring Rod Argent,keyboards and main songwriter and Colin Blunstone lead vocalist, managed to get a tentative contract with CBS, though they had to partly  self-finance the recording itself.  Again this attempt had mediocre reviews and poor sales and the band decided to call it a day, actually in late 1967 as they were getting no gigs and the album’s release seemed to take forever.  Al Kooper, a staff producer pushed the record and the singles, the third of which ‘Time Of The Season’, after initial poor sales slowly gained traction and eventually got to number 3 in America.  By now Rod was busy forming his next band Argent and Colin after a couple of years began a successful solo career.  In 2003 the original members reformed and have released a handful of albums.  This album has become a small cult, and is quite unique – almost baroque pop, excellent songs and a clear uncluttered production.  Best songs ‘A Rose For Emily’, ‘Beechwood Park’ and ‘This Will Be Our Year’.

So, that’s it.  Finished – but another marathon I won’t bore you with, as I am going to attempt to play every single CD from A to Z again.  Only done it twice so far and not sure how many years it will take…wish me luck.