DommeDamian
Imperfect, sensitive Aspie with a melody addiction
Gender: Male
Age: 23
Location: where the flowers grow.
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- #2
- Posted: 01/11/2024 21:05
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You're 22 [again]. You're taking a walk on a late spring evening, and suddenly you see an active clubhouse. As you walk in with curiosity, Time of The Season starts playing, and you recognize high school friends, having the most charismatically great time imaginable. While y'all singing your beating hearts out to the classic, and everything is good.
Why I did tell you this preposterous little story, I don't know. But life is full of amazing and non-mattering surprises, and one of them was certainly when I - you guessed it - came around Odessey And Oracle (gotta spell it out how it's imprinted). I saw it at around the 100th spot on the overall chart, and I'm thinking with the stupidity of prejudice 'Why would you listen to a band called Zombies, when you had Beatles and Pink Floyd in the same era'? To where I would now answer to my younger self 'Because people aren't closeminded like you, idiot'. I came to listen to it, after falling in love with numerous psychedelic albums, and ready to explore. This album is Psychedelic pop perfection, more so than The Beatles: as they took a revolutionary visit to the psych-pop world, O&O by The Zombies was literally born from it.
Throughout late spring to late summer 2021, I played this album a lot. There’s not a moment that isn’t heartfelt or timeless. Care of Cell 44 is delightful sunshine to start it all off and features sublime background harmony, that gives the happy bass, some dynamic texture. A Rose For Emily is a pretty melancholic track (very bold for them to place it in this part of the tracklist), yet puts a smile on my face. Maybe it’s the simple chord progressions that were pretty innovative for its time. Maybe After He’s Gone is filled with a singing forest in heaven. The shift from potent guitar to piano is priceless, and we even get to experience the harmony and chorus acapella. Unbelievably magical song. Beechwood Park feels slower in pace, with jazz-inspired drums, but what makes the song even greater is the shivering melodic bass - those melodies are to die for. Pop music doesn’t get much higher than when “I won’t forget you” hits on top of those instruments of beauty. I like how Brief Candles is lyrically is one bittersweet telling, but musically is two compositions; one is an atmospheric piano ballad that sounds straight out of Beethoven’s finest works; the other is a then-contemporary Doors-esque rhythm and organ, and steady vocal harmonies. Both parts slap.
As does the adventurous Hung Up On A Dream, which contains one of my favorite piano melodies on the record. Changes is... too good to be true. Every part from the tempo, through the melody, through the lyrics, to the supernatural instrumental strength, it leaves me feeling in a higher form of life. The small interludes of music between the magnificent chorus are undoubtedly cute. I Want Her She Wants Me would be a top 10 Beatles song, I’ll say that much. This Will Be Our Year is the record’s most spotless song, the enchantingly motivational lyrics (sung in a careful motherly tone), are the highlight of it. Then comes Butchers Tale (incredible organ-playing), the track on O&O with perhaps the oldest soul. Some of the lyrics are a bit modernized, but overall it’s an irresistible poetic telling of a man in the middle of World War I. After that dramatic song, we get an uplifter in Friends of Mine. It reminds us how important friends can be in specific phases of life (both the down-bad and bright times). And of course, it ends with the already mentioned classic Time of The Season. A truly seductive psychedelic pop tune. The minimal arrangement allows the slow groove in the bass to come through, seductively pulling the song through to the end. Even in the more upbeat sections, the overall feel stays loose; the quick, solo section at the end adds freedom rather than excitement. On top of all this, the rhythmic gasping only accentuates the slow sexy groove. (AndreaHarthorn, Genius). The “Who’s your daddy, is he rich like me?” doesn’t fit the narrative, but the songwriting in the song itself is perfect. I take it as a light-hearted sarcastic line. Also, the breathing sound effect looped is probably one of the most remarkable sounds to a tune like this. Just like the entirety of Odessey And Oracle is a remarkable LP in the genre. On the other side, I have not seen a single person on the internet who actually dislikes this classic. And honestly, how could you?
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