"On the fourteenth of February 1899 the British ship Veronica was lost without a sign"...and so begins the epic Bee Gees album "Odessa". Originally released as 2 record set adorned in a red velvet cover in 1969, it is apparent from the beginning that this is no ordinary Bee Gees album.
First we must put things in perspective. Younger music fans probably only picture the Bee Gees dressed in white disco suits from their 'Saturday Night Fever' era, but long before they were a group that produced well crafted pop/rock songs in a style similar to many of the British Invasion groups of the era. Their voices are what set them apart from other bands of the era. Very few vocalists could convey such a range of emotion as the Gibb brothers. By the time "Odessa" was released, the Bee Gees had already experienced success with records such as "I Gotta Get A Message to You", "New York Mining Disaster 1941", "Holiday", "To Love Somebody", "Massachusetts", "World" and at least a half dozen others. By this time they had become old pros in the recording studio.
By the time of 1969, popular music had changed radically, even from just a few years previously. Many artists were expanding the boundaries of their albums. No longer were they a collection of 3 minute singles with a little filler thrown in. The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" and The Who's "Tommy" had shown that an entire album could tell a story and they began to be called "concept albums".
Odessa is the best of both worlds. It is a "concept album" in that it is a collection of similarly themed songs but there is no running narrative or story to over conceptualize the album. The theme is hard to determine but seems to center on a wistfulness for the loss of simple times of the past. All of the pieces seem to fit together yet they all can stand on their own. There are few albums from the era that sound as good today as Odessa. It one of those few albums like The Zombie's "Odyssey & Oracle" that sounds as fresh and exciting today as it did then. The orchestration ( by Paul Buckmaster who would later work with Elton John) is lush and beautiful as it blends perfectly with the rest of the music.
The recent Rhino re-master improves the sound quality dramatically from the previously released CD version. There are 3 CDs of material: the original album in stereo, the original album in mono, and a third disc of alternate takes and demos. Where it becomes overkill to have both stereo and mono versions of some releases, here there are significant differences to make it worthwhile. It comes housed in a red velvet box (like the original album cover) and includes a poster, a sticker and an informative booklet giving the history of the recording.
This album is highly recommended ,but not limited to, anyone who is a Bee Gees fan. As a matter of fact, if you own no other albums by the group, this would be the one to buy as most of their early recorded output is better represented by a 'best of' collection anyway.
