Remastering The Zombies Mono Album Odyssey And Oracle Colin Blunstone Breaks It Down

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees and “British Invasion” pioneers, The Zombies, today
announce the release of Odessey & Oracle Mono Remastered on September 26th. The album, the
first of four definitive physical reissues from their catalog, includes the classic songs “Time Of
The Season,” “Care of Cell 44,” and “This Will Be Our Year” and is a regular entry in “Best
Albums of All Time” lists in publications like Rolling Stone, NME, and Mojo Magazine. The
release, which coincides with The Zombies’ documentary, Hung Up On A Dream, marks the first
time the band's original mono mix, remastered from studio tapes, has appeared on LP since the
record's British issue in 1968, presenting the album as they originally intended it to be heard.
Pre-order the album on all formats here.
Recorded primarily at London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios in 1967, Odessey & Oracle was
self-produced in Mono on a shoestring budget by primary songwriters Rod Argent (keyboards/
vocals) and Chris White (bass/vocals). Under last-minute pressure from their record label, the
album was hastily remixed in the newly emerging Stereo format, which sacrificed key elements
from the Mono recording, most notably the beloved horn parts in “This Will Be Our Year”.The band today also share the first track off the album, the mono remastered version of “This
Will Be Our Year”, with the horn parts restored. Although never released as a single, this deep
cut has found a new life thanks to prominent uses in TV and film, including memorable scenes in
Mad Men, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Schitt's Creek, and covers by artists like Foo
Fighters, OK Go and Susanna Hoffs. Its positive and uplifting message has been embraced by
couples as a popular wedding song, and become a staple of New Year’s playlists. Listen here.
The album also includes new liner notes from famed writer, David Fricke. Read an excerpt
below:
Odessey and Oracle is very much of and about its time: songs of youth and love – the
lucky strike of attraction ("I Want Her She Wants Me"); flickering memories held tight
("Brief Candles"); longing that defies the odds ("Maybe After He's Gone") – from pop's
high season of amour, a crowded nirvana of landmark debuts (Pink Floyd, the Doors, the
Jimi Hendrix Experience) and definitive accounts of Britain's psychedelic bloom…This
album was also built to stand the test of time, at the 11th hour by a band with everything
to prove. "We were always dissatisfied with the production of our records," Argent said in
1971 of the Zombies' Decca work. "We wanted to produce an album before we broke up
to satisfy ourselves." The result was a fearlessness that still rings fresh, that invention
driven by the Zombies' stringent resources and their confidence in the songs. Most of "A
Rose for Emily" is simply piano and vocal, an Argent-Blunstone duet with streaks of
choral sigh.


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