Zombies "Odessey and Oracle" Always Meant to Be Mono

available in mono (in America) for first time in decades

If the music wasn't so interesting and singular, the story behind the album recorded in 1967 and released in 1968 would easily be more so. Dumped by Decca after having a string of great singles including "She's Not There", the group self-financed this project, recorded much of it at what later would be called Abbey Road Studios (with some at Olympic), signed to CBS, put out two singles and then this album released April, 1968 a month after the band announced it was breaking up, promptly flopped.

In America Columbia Records head Clive Davis passed on it, but Al Kooper then doing A&R for the label, heard it, loved it and got it released on the obscure Date Records label where it flopped all over again until "Time of the Season" — a song not originally slated for a singles release — became a hit single. You probably know the rest and you might have even known all of that.

The album, recorded when at EMI (Abbey Road) using the same 4 track Studer The Beatles used, was always intended by the group as a mono release and that's what the group delivered to CBS but CBS insisted on a stereo release so the band quickly and inexpensively delivered a stereo mix again paid for out of its own pocket. Stereo jackets were never produced, which is why every original has a stereo sticker like this one:

But there was a problem with the song "This Will Be Our Year". The horns in the arrangement were added "live" during the mix to mono so for the stereo version a not too pleasant sounding "fake stereo" mix had to be created. Otherwise the stereo mix is pleasing though as with early Beatles 4 track recordings sometimes the mix put the lead vocal on one track, as on the opener "Care of Cell 44". As with most recordings intended for mono release, the "stereo" mix is more hard panned left, right and center and what sounded exciting to young ears new to having "stuff" in different channels, later ends up sounding artificial and disjointed.

I imagine most readers here are well familiar with the music so I'm not going to review it here other than to note that Beach Boys harmonies and Brian Wilson must have been influential in the song writing ("Care of Cell 44"), along with Paul McCartney ("A Rose For Emily") which is uniformly outstanding if this baroque pop style appeals to you. The Left Banke also may have been an influence. But more direct are snippets of American R&B and other influences.

The original mono mix CBS album now sells for in excess of $1000 on Discogs and until now a reissue hasn't appeared, which is not surprising since it's long been thought that the original master tape has either disappeared or had deteriorated to where it was unusable.

In 2015 a U.K. mono edition cut by Miles Showell was released on Repertoire Records (V102 M) (supposedly from a needle drop). Now comes this mono reissue from Beachwood Park Records released in The United States. The credit list includes "Archive and restoration by Matthew White, Jamie White, Alec Paleo and Nick Robbins", then the remastering credit from whatever they had created and from what isn't divulged. Abbey Road Studios provided a tracking session visual (July 10, 1967 2:30-5:30) but there's no tape box image nor is a source provided.

The sound here is clear and forward. It's bright and direct with little decay and in your face. The mid bass has been carved out so there's little warmth. It's not been "picket fenced" but surely dynamically compressed making it sound as if the mix was being viewed through a microscope—it's brilliance can take the close up. Played at lower SPLs it's more than tolerable and makes clear the mono mix's superiority.

The source might have started life as a digital file but it also might have been a file created from a needle drop. Does it matter? The fact is, this is the first mono mix available in 2025 that won't cost you $1000 unless you luck out at a garage sale or thrift store. The pressing from an unidentified pressing plant was quiet and concentric.

Assuming the producers worked from a less than ideal source (whatever it was), as long as you don't crank it up, the results are fascinating, enjoyable and far more coherent than the stereo mix, especially for long time fans of the album familiar only with the stereo, which is by comparison disjointed and artificial though more relaxed and inviting.

i did the obligatory comparisons between an original U.K. CBS stereo pressing that I bought when the record was first released, a Rhino 1987 stereo reissue, The Zombies "two-fer" Time of the Zombies (Epic KEG 32861) and the Big Beat Records 1997 reissue mastered by Ray Staff at Whitfield Steet Mastering and pressed at Record Industry. Whitfield a former Sony facility closed in the early 2000 and re-opened elsewhere with all of the original mastering gear purchased at auction by Naweed (he goes by a single name) who worked at the original facility.

The Big Beat (an Ace Records affiliate) version is both the best sounding stereo edition I have on hand and the only one where they were able to cut in the original mono master of "This Will Be Our Year" in place of the electronically reprocessed original. How great is that? Plus the transparency and overall clarity considerably betters the CBS original.

Incredibly, this Big Beat pressing is relatively inexpensive on Discogs and if you like this record, especially if you own the mediocre Date Records original grab one ASAP!!!!!

Ironically though this new edition is timbrally and texturally artificial and sort of repellent, it also makes clear the superiority of the original mono mix, which makes complete sense: it's what the band wanted and intended, and it did the work to get it that way, later doing a quick as inexpensive as possible mix to hand to their CBS bosses.

And in case you're wondering, yes I did! I compared the Big Beat's mono track cut using the original master tape with the mono version on this reissue and OMG this one sucks compared to the Big Beat, but this one is all we have. So, if you love this record, you could buy the Big Beat and this and for not much $ have the best stereo version and the only mono one under $1000.00.

Too bad, because last week I spent a few minutes with Jeff Powell who cut lacquers for this and I'd have asked him what he knew about the source. Now I'm spoiled by the Big Beat's overall sonics and by this reissues superior mono mix.