The Zombies (Clear Vinyl) [Import]

In 1966, the Zombies had already realized some success from their debut album, BEGIN HERE, but could not get their initial label, Decca, to release a follow-up. They defected to CBS, for whom they would record their masterwork, ODESSEY AND ORACLE, and, in the interim, Decca put out I LOVE YOU, a singles compilation that never saw US release. THE ZOMBIES (2004) marks the first American pressing of the aforementioned album, buoyed by a generous number of bonus tracks (additional A- and B-sides from the group's Decca years). While the conceptual baroque-pop sophistication of ODESSEY was still down the road, the phase represented by THE ZOMBIES shows the group to be one of the finest of the British Invasion-era bands--at their best they were fully on par with the Beatles' contemporaneous work. Colin Blunstone's smokey, fragile tenor and Rod Argent's jazz/R&B-tinged electric keyboards drive the Zombies' sound, as the disc moves through familiar hits ("She's Not There," "I Love You") and more obscure tracks (the airy, touching "The Way I Feel Inside," the swirling, atmospheric "Gotta Get a Hold of Myself"). While the absence of CBS material keeps this from being a definitive anthology, it's as fine a slice of mid-'60s British pop as one could desire.