Odessey and Oracle (1968) was a commercial failure on release. The Zombies had broken up by the time it came out. “Time of the Season” became a substantial hit a year later, after the album had already been forgotten. This is the specific shape of a certain kind of record: too complete in itself to require immediate understanding.
Rod Argent is one of the most harmonically sophisticated keyboard players in late-’60s British rock — the voicings on “Brief Candles” and “Hung Up on a Dream” have an exactness that distinguishes them from the surrounding era’s tendency toward psychedelia-as-blur. Colin Blunstone’s voice influenced everyone from Big Star to Beach House to Tame Impala. The record repays the kind of attention it didn’t receive on first release, which is also the description of most things worth keeping.
Odessey and Oracle (1968) was a commercial failure on release. The Zombies had broken up by the time it came out. “Time of the Season” became a substantial hit a year later, after the album had already been forgotten. This is the specific shape of a certain kind of record: too complete in itself to require immediate understanding.
Rod Argent is one of the most harmonically sophisticated keyboard players in late-’60s British rock — the voicings on “Brief Candles” and “Hung Up on a Dream” have an exactness that distinguishes them from the surrounding era’s tendency toward psychedelia-as-blur. Colin Blunstone’s voice influenced everyone from Big Star to Beach House to Tame Impala. The record repays the kind of attention it didn’t receive on first release, which is also the description of most things worth keeping.