[B]
15. The Zombies - Odyssey and Oracle (1968)
I won't lie; it's not like I'm a massive fan of psychedelia or anything. This, though, counts as my favourite ever such album, mixing dreamy melodies, harmonised choruses and colourful swathes of mellotron based around the rock 'n' roll song structure. Ironically, considering in
Time Of the Season it spawned their biggest hit,
Odyssey and Oracle was intended as a swansong for a band on the verge of splitting up during recording. The results are just mesmerising, and ones which made an instant impact on yours truly. With solid rhythms, white-hot piano melodies and textured mellotrons, it delivers some of the best psychedelic songs ever in the form of
Changes and
Hung Up On a Dream, as well as some wonderfully composed pop songs with that same psychedelic air about them like the uplifting
Friends Of Mine and
Care Of Cell, and more downbeat, emotional centrepieces for the album such as
Beechwood Park and
Butcher's Tale. I could go on, but there's already a pretty solid review of this somewhere in this forum, so I'll just say it's an end-to-end classic and one of the very finest albums of the 60s.
The best bits: A Rose For Emily,
Changes,
Friends Of Mine