I had never heard of this album until a few weeks ago. I was new to The Zombies, having only heard the riff of “Time Of The Season” somewhere. I can’t remember where, though. Since I thought the cover was great, I decided to give this album a try and let me tell you, I don’t regret it at all! I still cannot believe that I’ve never heard of such a masterpiece before. After listening to it, I felt like I was missing out on something really great and I think that nobody should pass on something like this.

I fell in love with the album on the first listen and still love it as much, or even more, at this day. If you like the Beatles, The Beach Boys, or just the late 60′s, this album is for you. Throughout it you will go on a 35 minutes emotional trip that is going to make you feel like you were in that trippy universe depicted on the album cover. As soon as it starts off, it makes you go through a plethora of emotion until the last minute. Some songs are sad, slow and even nearly depressing (“Butcher’s Tale”) while other will simply make you feel good and dreamy (“Hung Up On A Dream”). It does have some flaws, but overall it’s an amazing album that truly represents the psychedelic side of the late 60′s pop music.

You can clearly see the ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ influence but this album is definitively not a copy of it. Seriously, if this album had been released before that legendary Beatles’ album, The Zombies would have integrated pop culture in a significant way because of their revolutionary style and melodic approach of different themes that were important at that time.

The vocals and the lyrics are also a really strong point of the album. Most of the songs are sung in a way that makes you literally feel the music with those amazing vocals and harmony that guides you through this enigmatic album. While the lyrics, even if quite simple, get you and are perfectly on point.

As I was listening to it, I couldn’t believe that I was missing on such a great piece of work from a group that I’ve never ever heard of! Of course, I must admit, as a fan of this era’s sound, I was probably a bit biased but I’m sure any music fan can really appreciate this unless they’re totally against melody, voice harmonies, psychedelic, baroque pop sound.

by Jean-Guy