review by thomas

Zombies were Rod Argent and Chris White’s vehicle before they formed Argent. Zombies played well-crafted, pretty little pop tunes with focus on the singing and the keyboards. Although it came out in 1968 it sounds like it was recorded around ’64 – ’66. For me music began to sound really interesting in 1967, and I seldom like anything before that very much. Experiences have proved me right. So even though “Odessey and Oracle” consist of twelve solid little pop tunes, they just sound too early and too pretty, a little lame actually.

The eerie “Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914)” stands out a mile from the rest of the tracks, in that that it’s by far the best and unconventional track featured. Also present on the album is the massive hit “Time of the Season”. (When it became a hit the Zombies had already disbanded.)

So this is not really for me, but those of you who sees no obstacles in music before 1967 (or in this case: music that sounds like it’s from before 1967) will surely appreciate this well-done and well-crafted record.