Album: Odessey & Oracle
There are several standout tracks, opener Care Of Cell 44, A Rose For Emily (the baroque highpoint), This Will Be Our Year (more lovely piano) and my favourite, Time Of The Season. Everything about this song is pop perfection; the bass riff, Argent's organ solos, the call & response (Blunstone singing "who's your Daddy?" in a much less menacing way than Ray Winstone). By the time this had become a hit single in the US in '69, the band had already split up owing to poor album sales, and would never recapture the magic of Odyssey & Oracle. Over the years, the album would become more and more influential; in ambitious song-suite Changes, you can see a template for the more whimsical manifestations of prog rock (not necessarily a great legacy, I grant you). On a more positive note, Odessey & Oracle would also inspire some of the best baroque pop ever created, especially by uniquely British bands like Belle & Sebastian and The Clientele.
Artist: Zombies
Born: St Albans
Released: April 1968
Genre: Baroque
Influenced: Todd Rundgren, Elliott Smith, Belle & Sebastian, The Clientele
For whatever reason, The Zombies often get lumped in with psychedelia; maybe it's the Odessey & Oracle album cover, maybe it's the mellotron, but in truth the band didn't have anywhere near the same experimental approach to instrumentation and song structure that characterised many of their psychedelic peers. Instead, the strings and evocations of Victorian gentility and English village greens were more a reaction to the trend towards heavy rock, a dreamy baroque counterpoint to the darker themes invading pop music. There was an intellectual edge to their songs, reminiscent of Jacques Brel and Scott Walker, while the sound seems to be heavily influenced by Beatles songs such as Eleanor Rigby and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. The harmonies are especially impressive and Colin Blunstone's brilliant singing (a voice that first came to prominence on '64 single, She's Not There) combined with the assured playing and catchy pop songs make this a real classic.
There are several standout tracks, opener Care Of Cell 44, A Rose For Emily (the baroque highpoint), This Will Be Our Year (more lovely piano) and my favourite, Time Of The Season. Everything about this song is pop perfection; the bass riff, Argent's organ solos, the call & response (Blunstone singing "who's your Daddy?" in a much less menacing way than Ray Winstone). By the time this had become a hit single in the US in '69, the band had already split up owing to poor album sales, and would never recapture the magic of Odyssey & Oracle. Over the years, the album would become more and more influential; in ambitious song-suite Changes, you can see a template for the more whimsical manifestations of prog rock (not necessarily a great legacy, I grant you). On a more positive note, Odessey & Oracle would also inspire some of the best baroque pop ever created, especially by uniquely British bands like Belle & Sebastian and The Clientele.
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