Customer Reviews

Odessa

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This album was originally supposed to be a 'concept' work for the Brothers Gibb. Though it may not have finished to be what the Gibbs had originally intended, it stands to be one of their finest works ever.

In retrospect, I believe this work is highly important. First, it proves that 'pre-disco' as well as 'post-disco'life existed (exists) for the Bee Gees.

The melodies (Odessa, You'll Never See My Face Again, Sound of Love, Whisper Whisper, Lamplight etc.)display a unique blend of R&B, classical rock and 'Beatlesque' sound that only the Gibbs could produce. The melodies and harmonies (as well as the orchestrial blendings) are absolutely stunning.

Much of this album reminds me of The Moody Blues and Electric Light Orchestra from nearly. Who got there first? Who cares? The music is hauntingly beautiful. Definately worthy of a serious listening and sincere admiration. Keep in mind, the brothers were 19 (Robin and Maurice) and 21 (Barry) when they wrote the music for this album.

Even though I have been a fan of The Bee Gees since 1967, I never really cared for the Disco era. I was somewhat saddened to see them move from their Beatlesque sound to Disco. I am thrilled to see that their 80s and 90s music reflects more and more of their original stylings.

In my opinion no one comes close to The Bee Gees when it comes to sheer talent in versatile writiing. After all, it was The Bee Gees that wrote the biggest selling Country and Western single ever (Islands In The Stream, written for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Pardon).

These men deserve much more credit than what they have ever received for their contribution to pop music. They are righ up there with Lennon and McCartney, Gershwin, Rogers and Hammerstein (of their respective eras).

Odessa has to rank with Mr. Natural as one of the greatest unknown Bee Gees albums ever. It definitely was their best of their 4 '60s CDs (although the other 3 are all solid). What made this album even more incredible was that it came out at a time when all 3 brothers were having a tough time getting along with each other and by 1970, Robin had left the group. If all you know about the Brothers Gibb is their stuff from the late '70s, then you really need to listen to this album because you will really be amazed at what you hear. Originally envisioned as a concept album, Odessa is an hour of musical bliss. Here's a track listing and my thoughts on each: 1) Odessa -- The title track is over 7 minutes long but it's an incredible 7 minutes. Unbelievable harmonies that only the Brothers Gibb can do. Starts the theme of love lost at sea. 2) You'll Never See my Face Again -- A light-hearted piece that's okay, but not one of my favorites. 3) Black Diamond -- A great song! Robin gives one of his best performances ever in singing this gem. 4) Marley Purt Drive -- A song that definitely has a country feel to it with the banjo playing in the background. Interesting song in many aspects including the memorable line "with 16 kids and a family on the skids, I gotta go for a Sunday drive." 5) Edison -- A fun song to listen to. I love the sound of the instruments in this song. 6) Melody Fair -- Classic Brothers Gibb. An unbelievable song to say the least. One of the main reasons to buy this album. 7) Suddenly -- An okay song but like #2, one that I don't really listen to alot. 8) Whisper Whisper -- A different type of song that was somewhat revolutionary in its time. This isn't Stayin' Alive or Night Fever that you're listening to. Curiously, it's one of my least listened to songs on the album. 9) Lamplight -- An important song for Bee Gees buffs (this was the song that caused Robin to leave the group). IMHO, one of the best songs on the album. Robin gives his usual fine performance, but what makes this song great is the unbelievable harmonization by Maurice. 10) Sound of Love -- An okay song that has some good background music to it. 11) Give Your Best -- A somewhat hokey song that I usually skip when it comes on. 12) Seven Seas Symphony -- Purely instrumental. It's actually an outstanding track as it showcases the Brothers' composition talents. 13) With All Nations -- Another instrumental track that is less than 2 minutes long. Sounds alot like track #12. 14) I Laugh in Your Face -- One of my favorites on the album. I love how they develop the mood to this song and then change it to something completely different. 15) Never Say Never Again -- Another solid song featuring a fine performance by Barry. 16) First of May -- Believe it or not, the only song on this album to hit the US Top 40 (peaked at #37). Once again, Barry gives a fine performance. This was the song that was picked over Lamplight and caused Robin to leave the group. 17) The British Opera -- The third instrumental track on the album. It's a little more scary sounding than the other two. All in all a great and underappreciated album. The best tracks are #1, #3, #4, #5, #6, #9, #10, #12, #14, #15, and #16. If you like good music, then the Bee Gees are always a smart choice to get; however, where most of their albums, like all other artists, have their filler tracks, Odessa is an example of what they can do when they really focus. Once again, it's hard for me to imagine that they were able to do this considering the personal problems they were going through plus they were only 21, 19, and 19 when they did this! Do yourself a favor and buy this album!

Yes, this was the Bee Gees 'white' album, only this doubled LP had a red velvet cover and a 'Titanic'-like illustration in the gatefold. Now available on a single CD, it marks the end of the sixties period for the Bee Gees.

The music? This was an important time for the Gibbs' who were maturing (at ages 19 and 21) and already millionaires. The music was conceptual and starting with the title track, it delivers with powerful orchestration and emotional, lyrical simplicity. It is a skewed look at a fabled seafarer lost at sea and emotionally destitute. At least, that's what the project started out to be.

Somewhere during the recordings, egos flared and tempers snapped, so what you ended up with is a collection of half Bee Gees conceptual songs and half individual Gibb contributions. It is still a remarkable recording!

Stand-out cuts are "Marley Purt Drive" that could have been recorded by "The Band" and "Melody Fair", a single in some countries and a well covered track.

Most of the other tracks deal with period issues like, drugs, sex, rock 'n roll, psychodelia and why not? Producer Stigwood unwittingly fueled the tensions by choosing "First Of May" as the A-Side single instead of B-Side "Lamplight", which was just as strong.

Regardless, the final outcome is a conceptual album filled with an orchestrally sweeping moodiness aligned with perfect harmonies and lyrics envied by everyone. This is one of the few albums of the period with orchestral solos with the Gibbs providing the chorus. It is monumental.

There is a vast catalogue of "important" releases that present many pop groups and artists of The Sixties in what is arguably considered their finest hour: The Beatles' Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Strange Days by The Doors, Dear Eloise/King Midas In Reverse by The Hollies, The Velvet Underground And Nico (debut album; same title), Distant Shores by Chad and Jeremy, Crown Of Creation by Jefferson Airplane, and too many more to mention. Sadly overlooked too often by the critics is this wonderful collection of music the Bee Gees released in 1969. The songs are often quiet and reflective, the music is accompanied by the lush, majesterial sounds of a full orchestra, creating a mood of luxury and elegance. The cost factor in creating this set of music must have been quite prohibitive at the time (This was originally a 2 record set), but the Brothers Gibb were looking for a Sound, a Final Note of rare beauty and grace. You couldn't compare Odessa to any other releases of 1969, it was unique. The album bears the distinctive absence of the latest trends and gimmicks so often employed at the time (false endings, backwards tape loops, vocoder vocals, late blooming psychedelia effects), so it doesn't sound dated when you hear it today. If anything, it was a bold move for The Bee Gees to present this opus, so very unlike what everybody else was doing. There is much thought given to these songs, and the studio time was well spent. I can't really say there are any "throwaway" titles in the set; they all work together as the woven threads to a grand tapestry. It's an extravagant move to include 3 (!!) orchestral instrumental pieces capping the sets, but they are so right for the album, and wondrous to hear even today. I still think Odessa stands as The Finest Hour for The Bee Gees. Like a fine wine, a classic film, or the distant memory of an old love affair, it only improves with time.

After 18 years in hiding, Odessa is finally back where it rightfully belongs - competing for `Best of the 60's Concept Albums.' Odessa is a symphonic tragedy of love and loss at sea. The original album had an elegant and luxurious velvet cover. Technological innovation has negated the cover, but the sophistication and grandeur of the music remain.

Melody and harmony are the Bee Gees strong suit. `Black Diamond,' `Melody Fair,' and `Lamplight' challenge the most infectious Lennon-McCartney melodies. Maurice, Barry and Robin share lead vocals. Maurice and Barry are provocative on the more whimsical stuff (Edison, Melody Fair, I Laugh In Your Face). Barry sings naturally - he's no pathetic castrado here. And Robin's nasal vibrato is ideal for the love songs (Black Diamond, Lamplight, First of May). If the Everly Brothers own the patent on flawless sibling harmony, then the Bee Gees borrowed it for Odessa. Their harmonies are dazzling.

On a literal note, the majority of the lyrics are nonsensical: `It took a thousand years to find out why you'll never see my face again,' and `my brother is friendly for reasons if I am the same just for four hundred seasons we all live in rain.' Matter not. You'll sing them regardless. Odessa is a mushy and overblown sixty minutes of beauty, tragedy and love.

Many music fans state that the mind blowing album for them was "Sgt. Pepper's" from the Fab Four. For many, THAT was the album of the late-60's generation. "Odessa" from The Bee Gees is a superior effort--no doubt inspired by The Beatles. The album itself is a story about love lost, scorn, history, youthful desire and comedy ("Give Your Best"). "Suddenly" is one of Maurice's Best efforts, and "Lamplight" is an emotional ride that put's the listener in the eyes of the young lad longing for his love to return. "First Of May" is an adult contemporary number which gives those sentimentalists a nod. The instrumentals ("With All Nations"), ("Seven Seas Symphony"), give the work an originality all its own. Yes, The Beatles may have been the inspiration, but each group of artists during this time respected it, and went down their own paths. The Bee Gees are no exception. Fine Work from fine talented people--Barry at 21, Maurice and Robin both 19--amazing how artists this youthful could compose such beautiful melodies and arrangements. Highly recommended--for the "eyes" and ears. --Nicholas Arietano, Jr.

This is still the lushest of all the Bee Gees' albums, unless you count the late, great CUCUMBER CASTLE. That alone makes it worth hearing a few hundred times but my, oh my- -those songs. I don't know what the rift was over the band's direction that temporarily broke them up (a family affair, you see), but whatever it was the Brothers rose above the occasion and created one of the finest records of the glorious, inglorious Sixties. It was their last of that decade, and everything they'd done previous to it, great as it may have been, was merely prelude. In England ODESSA was released as a red-velvet two-LP box set; in the States as a red-velvet double LP with a remarkably green disaster-at-sea insert. You could put the thing on your coffee table (or floor, or kitchen counter) and let it speak for itself, or you could lie back and immerse yourself in its velvety sonic ocean. Or both, with or without headphones. Okay, that may be overstating it, but ODESSA contains some of the Brothers' finest compositions, ranging from the story-telling prog-rock of the title track (the cello solo is an ingenious touch) to the lighter-than-air, lovely 'Melody Fair' to the oboe-chugged, acoustic 'Suddenly' (Maurice was always the underappreciated contributor) to the desperately haunted 'Sound Of Love'. Heck, they even included an international anthem that actually sounds like one, the prescient globalists!! And two other orchestral instrumentals to boot! And- -'Lamplight'!! You want goofy instead? Okay, 'Give Your Best', and 'Never Say Never Again'! There! These guys are awesome! Now, stop me before I start raving about how incredible CUCUMBER CASTLE is!!

Easily their best album prior to their sound-change in the 70s, and their most challenging musically. Released as a double-album in 1969, it's not long by today's standards (at 64 mins), but it was a radical departure. Note that on 2 LPs, there were 4 "sides" of music, and on this album they are arranged carefully.

The album opens with the 7-1/2 min title track, a hauntingly sad song with wailing discordant vocals and long instrumental passages - accoustic (classical) guitar and cello! The next two songs fit smoothly into the mood.

Side 2 throws a change of pace with the bluesy "Marley Purt Drive", then the short pieces "Edison" and "Melody Fair" (which should have been a single - they later collected it on "Best of vol 2"). "Suddenly" has an extremely interesting guitar beginning, and the side trails off with the odd jarring ending of "Whisper Whisper".

Side 3 begins with the dramatic chords of "Lamplight", then the poignant little ballad "Sound of Love". At this point the fun relief of "Give Your Best" is very welcome. Then the album goes right back to serious, with two "classical style" instrumentals. I particularly like the "Seven Seas Symphony".

Side 4 sneaks up on you with the quiet beginning to "I Laugh In Your Face". The great song "First of May" is in this section; sad, like all the other "great" songs on this album. The album ends with the orchestral piece "British Opera", which echoes (reprises) the orchestral stuff from side 3, and trails off.

The album doesn't quite hang together as a "concept" album; lyrically there are odd departures (Edison? Whisper Whisper?). But the sound is very distinctive beginning to end, and the mood is consistently dark and brooding. Most of all, the adventurous music-making is a hallmark all the way thru. Every song is very interesting musically, with inventive arrangments and often surprising lyrics.

It's a shame that this album broke them up, and that they didn't quite accomplish what they were trying to do. But what they did accomplish is an absolutely terrific album.

Reviewers have observed that this album is the Bee Gees' "White Album." I beg to differ: it's really their "Smiley Smile." The Odessa concept died in direct relation to the band's personal problems, in similar fashion to the Beach Boys and their legendary "Smile" album (the remnants of which were hastily thrown together as "Smiley Smile" after Brian Wilson could continue no further with it). At about the midpoint of the production of Odessa, things really started to go badly for the Bee Gees. Robin, looking for a way to have some creative control, left after it was decided Barry's "First of May" would make a better single than his "Lamplight." That vital third seems, from listening, to be somewhat unenthusiastic about some of the tracks on this album.

The boys started recording with a grand design: a concept album made up of letters and observations written by an English sailor shipwrecked, stranded and alone aboard an unapproachable iceberg, doomed to wander the icy Black Sea for an indeterminate amount of time. The general feel of the album, I would speculate, is intact in the title track. A few compositions, like "First of May," "Seven Seas Symphony" and "You'll Never See My Face Again" share the general atmosphere of that track and the lyrics fit thematically. But, as a result of discord within the band, the album was never finished as intended. Instead, current material seems to have been added to fill it out and it was released with its full potential unrealized.

If the band could have maintained the overall theme and mood as established in the core Odessa tracks, it could have been a near masterpiece. But the band was moving musically in a direction away from orchestral pop, a style they had developed via such seminal tracks as "World" and "Cucumber Castle," from previous records, and mastered by the time of Odessa, embracing instead styles which were coming into fashion just then: country and folk rock. "Marley Purt Drive" provides the tell-tale link to such future soft-country albums as Life in a Tin Can. This didn't bode well: when the ground-breaking Main Course came out, with the blueprint of disco coded within, it was hoped this newest change in direction would light a fire under its flagging fan base (it did).

In any event... the true potential of the group lay on the control room floor in bits and pieces after the Odessa sessions. Never again would an orchestra and a pop group meld in such a perfect way as on the remnant Odessa tracks (sorry Moody Blues fans).

I'm in agreement with the unanimous reviews: this is one of the Bee Gees best efforts, and my personal favorite (a close second to "Cucumber Castle").

To anyone who has derogatorily and incorrectly defined the Bee Gees (and there are many) as a disco phenomenon, listen to this CD and realize what true fans have come to embrace about the group. The music and lyrics are lush, complex...the harmonies and arrangements, simply beautiful.

Though this concept album was riddled with production/creative issues that resulted in a less than ideal conceptual release, there remains a cohesive element that makes it a success nonetheless. Several reviewers have commented that some of the tracks were not conceptual and were added to the album more or less as filler, resulting in a "missing element" feel to the album. For me, this has added to the mystery and mood of the album: (i.e., why would a shipwrecked sailor think about "Edison"...why not??).

Whatever the history of this album, it is a masterpiece and in a class by itself. It achieves a beautiful yet melancholy mood that makes you feel like you are living in the sea-faring past of old England, each song a voyage in itself.