BBC Review
Lead singer Colin Blunstone and virtuoso keyboardist Rod Argent are present and correct from the original quintet for this new Zombies album, while original bassist Chris White co-writes a couple of tracks. However, though this goes some way toward dispelling the smack of flying under a flag of convenience which afflicts so many 60s band reunions, this music rarely sounds like The Zombies we remember, and this can’t be put down solely to the alien presence of bassist Jim Rodford, drummer Steve Rodford and guitarist Tom Toomey.

When the opening title-track reveals itself to be breathy pop, the fact that it is a world removed from brooding fare like Zombies signature song She’s Not There seems unimportant: it’s a highly agreeable concoction and one is happily aware that musos of these men’s age rarely sound so peppy. However, when Blunstone’s Any Other Way (the sole song written with no input from Argent) turns out to be in a similarly sun-dappled mode despite its melancholy lyric, and when the Abbey Road-esque Shine on Sunshine transpires to feature the tweeting of birds just in case we don’t get the life-affirming message, it begins to seem like this peppiness is affected. Even the lack of gaps between songs feels designed to add to the artfully guileless air.

Not that all ties to the sophisticated past are cut. Jazzy, off-kilter time signatures maintain the bespectacled gravitas that led The Zombies to become one of the first bands to record a concept album, while there is plenty of the type of elegant, dazzling keyboard work for which Argent is renowned.

The relentless musical frothiness becomes almost paradoxical in contrast to the sometimes edgy lyrics of the slinky Play It For Real, the funky Show Me the Way and the flamenco-flavoured A Moment in Time. Yet, interestingly enough, it’s only when The Zombies try to get serious in both music and lyric that the album falls down: Christmas for the Free, a solemnly delivered querulous song about Yuletide, is too inchoate to have impact, while the muscular pop-rock domestic bellyache Another Day is somewhat banal.

Breathe Out, Breathe In is a very respectable piece of work, but the main thought it provokes is that it is a puzzling and almost painfully self-conscious attempt to put distance between The Zombies and the minor-chord moodiness that made their reputation.

--Sean Egan

Product Description
2011 album from the British Pop/Rock legends led by founding members Rod Argent and singer Colin Blunstone. A magisterial work, it is everything you could possibly hope for from the group who, back in the '60s, provided such signature works as the singles 'She's Not There', 'Tell Her No' and 'Time Of The Season' and the album Odessey And Oracle, their 1968 Brit Psych masterpiece. The 10 songs, which make up Breathe Out, Breathe In, are impeccably crafted pieces, the harmonies are rich, the melodies full, the arrangements exquisite, the organ and piano fresh, the production intuitive.

1. Breathe Out, Breathe In
2. Any Other Way
3. Play It For Real
4. Shine On Sunshine
5. Show Me The Way
6. A Moment In Time
7. Christmas For The Free
8. Another Day
9. I Do Believe
10. Let It Go

Amazon USA:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004NTVMMO/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004NTVMMO/?tag=imwan-21

The Zombies are gearing up to celebrate their 50th anniversary with a new album and tour.

The album is titled Breathe Out, Breathe In and is to be released by Red House Records on May 9. A few days later, the band go out on the road. The full list of gigs for May is:

Sat. 14: Frome Cheese & Grain

Wed. 18: Liverpool Guild of Students Stanley Theatre

Thu. 19: Bilston Robin 2

Fri. 20 : Leamington Spa Assembly

Sat. 21: Market Harborough Leisure Centre

Fri .27: London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

Find out more at http://www.thezombies.net/

Does anyone know if this is getting a US release? The UK release date is next week and I can't find anything other than import listings. I can order it through Amazon's UK site, but I've often gotten burned when the US release comes out with extra songs, a bonus disc, DVD, etc.

It's actually already out in the UK, it was released on Monday:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004NTVMMO/?tag=imwan-21

There's no domestic release currently scheduled.

Thanks, Linda. I try to avoid ordering from the UK unless there are no better options. At least the price there is decent, even with horrible exchange rate.

Also, for anyone who didn't know, the pricing at Amazon's UK site includes VAT, so the actual price when you place the order is lower than the listed price. The savings usually covers the shipping costs, which isn't a bad deal.

Somehow an import copy showed up at 'Rama. A couple of the songs sound so much like Steely Dan I had to check the liner notes to make sure Becker and Fagen weren't involved.

Oh no. That means I must hear this.

I love this CD. Much better than what has been released in the last decade.

Glad to see them back and in fine voice.

Rick A.

The Zombies plan to celebrate their 50th anniversary with a North American tour this fall in support of their new album.
The Zombies, helmed by founding members Rod Argent and singer Colin Blunstone, will hit the road in September and October behind their new release Breathe Out, Breathe In.

"There was a clear brief," says Rod Argent says of the new music. "We wanted to use as many two and three part harmonies as possible and lots of Hammond organ, Mellotron and Memotron. We didn't want to recreate the past, but we wanted to capture The Zombies' essence and meaning. Our energy and enthusiasm for making music is the same as it was when we first started and the magic and mystery of the whole music making process, we are still thrilled by it all. So we thought it would be great to celebrate when that all began. I first met Colin outside the Pioneer Club in St Albans for The Zombies' first rehearsal. We didn't know each other but Colin turned up with a broken nose and two black eyes. I thought, oh no, what have we got here? But he was a keen rugby player and had got injured during a game."

"That first rehearsal went really well because we got to borrow The Bluetones, a local St Albans band's equipment. Jim Rodford who now plays bass in The Zombies was in them funnily enough," says Colin Blunstone. "Our own equipment was dreadful though so when we played on that it brought us down to earth. I would judge how well our gigs went by the amount of blood Rod would lose from his thumb when he played his Jerry Lee Lewis runs on the piano. He'd have to press down really hard. These days he still bleeds for The Zombies of course… spiritually though not literally."

Breathe Out, Breathe In was recorded over a year in Argent's own Red House Studios, the band line-up completed by Colin and Rod's touring group – guitarist Tom Toomey, bassist, Jim Rodford and his son, drummer Steve Rodford. Rod would put down lead voice, piano and some harmonies on a demo, the band would listen and then lay down the bones of the song in a day. "Colin and I have been playing with this band for the last ten years," explains Rod. "And during those ten years we've grown into a very tight and sympathetic musical unit and so going into the studio was a really enjoyable experience, we have a telepathy."

"We often just know what the other person wants and needs and means without speaking," says Colin. "There is so much history there, we understand each other and The Zombies are like a cottage industry. We have complete artistic control. We run our own label, we book our own gigs, we provide our own transport and hotels. Rod writes most of the songs, we record in his studio and he produces the record. It keeps it very exciting being at the centre always of everything."

In his role as producer, Rod wanted to "capture the energy of the performance, that's what recording is all about, whether you are laying down a lead vocal or a guitar solo, you've got to gee yourself up and think this is the only chance you've got to do it. It was important to try and get the joy we feel of playing together on the record too. We wanted it to feel very organic, so when you are listening you can imagine us standing there playing and hitting things."



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