131. The Zombies — Odessey and Oracle (1968)

1. Patience is a virtue, one the Zombies embody. Like a number of other albums and artists featured in this list, they never found the success they sought while actively recording, but eventually time came back around and found them. The Zombies recorded only two released albums, Odessey and Oracle being the second, a relative flop that led the band to move on to bigger and better things. Decades later, audiences had caught on, and the Zombies were able to reunite and perform to the acclaim not afforded them in their initial run.
2. It’s a bit surprising this album didn’t find an audience; it stands up there with much of what the Kinks and Beatles were releasing early in their career, though perhaps by 1968 it was too late for this kind of straightforward pop rock. Nonetheless, the tunes hold up; “Care of Cell 44” is a stellar opener, and nearly everything after it is strong as well. “A Rose For Emily” found a recent audience as the theme song for the podcast S-Town; “This Will Be Our Year” is nostalgic and lovely, the kind of tune I could envision serving as a first dance for many a married couple.
3. But of course, I’ve buried the lede; the centerpiece of this album is its end, with “Time Of The Season.” I didn’t appreciate for a long time how sexy the slinking bassline on this tune is, how cool the breathy “ahh’s” are, how jazzy the organ breakdown is. This song offers a window into an alternate universe future for what the Zombies could have been, a vision of a more expansive sound that might’ve gelled well in the 70s. Unfortunately, while they began recording a follow-up, it didn’t get a release and this is all we were left with. As a parting gift, it’s not a bad one, even if its full potential took awhile to realize.

Next up: Van Morrison takes us on a journey through astral weeks.

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