The Zombies have unveiled plans to reissue their classic and influential 1968 album Odessey & Oracle on September 26. The new edition of Odessey & Oracle will boast a newly remastered version of the landmark album’s original mono mix.
The Odessey & Oracle reissue can be pre-ordered now. The album will be available on CD, as a vinyl LP, and via digital formats. A limited-edition blue-vinyl LP, signed by The Zombies’ four surviving original members—lead singer Colin Blunstone, keyboardist Rod Argent, bassist Chris White, and drummer Hugh Grundy—can be purchased at the band’s official online store.
The mono mix of the group’s enduring pop ballad “This Will Be Our Year” has been released as an advance track from the reissue. The mono version of the song features a horn part that wasn’t included in the original stereo mix.
More About Odessey and Oracle
Odessey and Oracle was The Zombies’ second studio effort, and the final studio album recorded by the band’s original lineup. By the time Odessey and Oracle was released, the group had split up. The sole hit from the album, the classic “Time of the Season,” didn’t enjoy commercial success until 1969, when it slowly built up airplay on U.S. radio stations. In March 1969, it peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Cash Box singles tally.
The Zombies mainly recorded Odessey and Oracle at the famous Abbey Road (then EMI) Studios in London. The band made the album on a tight budget. Argent and White served as the album’s producers, and they initially mixed it in mono. When they submitted the recording to their label, they were told a stereo mix was required, so they quickly had to put one together.
The horn parts recorded for “This Will Be Our Year” had to be left off of the stereo mix because they’d been recorded directly onto the mono version and couldn’t be rechanneled for the stereo version.
Odessey and Oracle is widely considered a baroque-pop masterpiece, and one of the finest albums of the 1960s. In his liner notes for the mono reissue, respected rock journalist David Fricke points out that he once described the album as “the closest Mother England ever came to its own Pet Sounds,” referring to The Beach Boys’ acclaimed 1966 album.
In 2025, Odessey and Oracle was chosen for induction in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
More Zombies News
The release of the Odessey and Oracle reissue follows the recent debut of the 2023 Zombies documentary Hung Up on a Dream on streaming and digital video services. Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary can now be rented and/or downloaded globally via Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and Altavod.
The reissue of Odessey and Oracle marks the launch of a new release campaign that will eventually feature the reissue of four albums by the band. The albums will be issued on The Zombies’ new label imprint, Beechwood Park Records.
Odessey and Oracle Track List:
- “Care of Cell 44”
- “A Rose for Emily”
- “Maybe After He’s Gone”
- “Beechwood Park”
- “Brief Candles”
- “Hung Up on a Dream”
- “Changes”
- “I Want Her She Wants Me”
- “This Will Be Our Year”
- “Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914)”
- “Friends of Mine”
- “Time of the Season”
(Courtesy of Beechwood Park Records)