01. Roadrunner
02. Time Of The Season
03. Play It For Real
04. Lula Lula
05. Any Other Way
06. Smokey Day
07. She's Not There
08. Another Day
09. I Do Believe
10. Let It Go
11. Girl Help Me
12. I Remember When I Loved Her
13. Sticks And Stones
14. Losing You
15. Woman
16. Walking In The Sun
17. Indication
18. I'm Going Home

Original Members:
Rod Argent - keyboards, vocals, songwriter
Colin Blunstone - lead vocals
Chris White - bass, vocals, songwriting
Paul Atkinson - guitar, vocals 
Hugh Grundy – drums

Though the Zombies had several major hits, their career was a frustrating one. Paul Atkinson, Rod Argent, and Hugh Grundy met at St. Albans School, and they soon linked up with Colin Blunstone and bassist Paul Arnold. Six months later Arnold was replaced by Chris White. After winning a rock-band contest held by a local newspaper, they auditioned with British Decca in 1964. That July, the electric-piano-centered "She's Not There" was released; it became a worldwide smash, going to #2 in America. A second single, "Leave Me Be," failed, but "Tell Her No" went Top 10, the Zombies last hit for some time. They also contributed songs to the movie Bunny Lake Is Missing.

In 1967 they recorded a final LP, Odessey and Oracle (the only album the band themselves approve of). They broke up two weeks after it was completed, in December 1967. Columbia staff producer Al Kooper fought to have the album issued; when it was released, in late 1968, it yielded a #1 gold hit in "Time of the Season." The band declined to re-form, although sizable sums were offered to the musicians. Argent already was moving ahead on plans for his eponymous band and others were fed up with the music business. Blunstone had first gone back to working in an insurance office, then to working as a singer under the name Neil MacArthur. With that pseudonym he had a 1970 hit with a remake of "She's Not There." He made several, Epic-released solo LPs under his own name, beginning in 1971 with One Year (produced by Argent and White). In 1978 the unsuccessful Never Even Thought appeared on Elton John's Rocket Records. Blunstone has since formed a group called Keats. He also sang on several records by the Alan Parsons Project.

Atkinson first went into programming computers. He later worked in A&R, first for Columbia in New York, and later at RCA, where he was vice president of West Coast A&R. Grundy also worked in Columbia's A&R department, but in the '80s he ran a horse transport business near London. White cowrote songs and produced records for Argent (for whom he wrote "Hold Your Head Up"). In the '70s he helped discover Dire Straits. Original bassist Arnold became a doctor in Scotland. Epic released a two-record "best-of," Time of the Zombies, in 1973. The four-CD Zombie Heaven renewed pop fans' interest in the band. By the late '90s, critics often referred to Odessey and Oracle as the British equivalent of the Beach Boys' masterpiece Pet Sounds. By the decade's end, Argent had finished an album of classical piano and Blunstone had resumed his solo touring after over 20 years. He continues to record on his own as well. The two performed together in New York for the first time in more than 30 years as part of Cave Stomp at the Village Underground nightclub. --- rollingstone.com

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1		Care Of Cell 44	3:56
2		A Rose For Emily	2:18
3		Maybe After He's Gone	2:33
4		Beechwood Park	2:44
5		Brief Candles	3:30
6		Hung Up On A Dream	3:02
7		Changes	3:20
8		I Want Her She Wants Me	2:53
9		This Will Be Our Year	2:08
10		Butchers Tale (Western Front 1914)	2:48
11		Friends Of Mine	2:18
12		Time Of The Season	3:34

Backing Vocals – Chris White, Rod Argent
Lead Vocals – Colin Blunstone
Drums – Hugh Grundy
Guitar – Paul Atkinson
Keyboards, Organ – Rod Argent

Odessey and Oracle was one of the flukiest (and best) albums of the 1960s, and one of the most enduring long players to come out of the entire British psychedelic boom, mixing trippy melodies, ornate choruses, and lush Mellotron sounds with a solid hard rock base. But it was overlooked completely in England and barely got out in America (with a big push by Al Kooper, who was then a Columbia Records producer); and it was neglected in the U.S. until the single "Time of the Season," culled from the album, topped the charts nearly two years after it was recorded, by which time the group was long disbanded. Ironically, at the time of its recording in the summer of 1967, permanency was not much on the minds of the bandmembers. Odessey and Oracle was intended as a final statement, a bold last hurrah, having worked hard for three years only to see the quality of their gigs decline as the hits stopped coming. The results are consistently pleasing, surprising, and challenging: "Hung Up on a Dream" and "Changes" are some of the most powerful psychedelic pop/rock ever heard out of England, with a solid rhythm section, a hot Mellotron sound, and chiming, hard guitar, as well as highly melodic piano. "Changes" also benefits from radiant singing. "This Will Be Our Year" makes use of trumpets (one of the very few instances of real overdubbing) in a manner reminiscent of "Penny Lane"; and then there's "Time of the Season," the most well-known song in their output and a white soul classic. Not all of the album is that inspired, but it's all consistently interesting and very good listening, and superior to most other psychedelic albums this side of the Beatles' best and Pink Floyd's early work. Indeed, the only complaint one might have about the original LP is its relatively short running time, barely over 30 minutes, but even that's refreshing in an era where most musicians took their time making their point. ---Bruce Eder, AllMusic Review

Drugi album zespołu The Zombies „Odyssey and Oracle” powstał w 1968 roku i niestety był to łabędzi śpiew tej grupy. Powstała płyta fascynująca i przebijająca inne pozycje z tamtych lat. Majstersztyk psychodelicznego popu.

„Good Morning to You” – tak swoim sennym i zadumanym głosem Blunstone zaprasza nas na ta pełną niespodzianek ucztę. Pełna szczęśliwości muzyka otwiera nam drogę na drugą stronę lustra.A co tam mamy?

Melancholijny i bardzo kameralny nastrój towarzyszy nam od pierwszych dźwięków. Psychodeliczny blask utworów pozwala dotknąć nam chmur. Swingujący Londyn otwiera nam swoje drzwi.

Puk, puk i już jesteśmy na Carnaby Street. A tu co? O proszę! Ulica z niezliczoną ilość butików i zadziwiająca swoją atmosferą, świetnie oddaje klimat płyty grupy The Zombies.

Uwaga! Powalający dandys w garniturze w paski z nieodłączną laską i melonikiem spaceruje sobie bez zobowiązań i rozmyśla o pięknej Emily.

No właśnie smutna, pełna słodkości melodia „A Rose For Emily” to drugi utwór na płycie. Bogate harmonie w „Brief Candles” czynią z tego utworu niezwykle poruszający moment. Dominujące brzmienie melotronu czyni „ Hang Up On a Dream” fenomenalnym i niewyobrażalnie wręcz poruszającym swoim dramatyzmem. Mająca dziwną, tajemniczą aurę piosenka „Beechwood Park” dodaje też uroku tej płycie, a przepiękna psychodeliczna ballada „Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914)” zagrana jedynie z akompaniamentem organów Argenta wywołuje dreszcze rozkoszy. I najbardziej znany numer z tej płyty „Time of the Season”. Mistrzowski popowy utwór, jeden z najwspanialszych w historii muzyki.

Niestety płyta „Odyssey and Oracle” przepadła w powodzi innych wydawnictw tamtych lat. Rozgoryczenie muzyków było na tyle duże, że zespół The Zombie rozpadł się.

A płyta – to jest arcydzieło psychodelicznego popu i jestem szczęśliwy, że mogę sobie jej słuchać kiedy tylko mam na to ochotę. ---Grzegorz Wiśniewski, artrock.pl

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