{"id":8739,"date":"2015-10-26T05:30:36","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T09:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=8739"},"modified":"2015-10-26T12:46:18","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T12:46:18","slug":"album-review-the-zombies-still-got-that-hunger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/10\/26\/album-review-the-zombies-still-got-that-hunger\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Zombies — Still Got That Hunger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"zombies_hunger\"<\/p>\n

File Next to: The Left Banke, Argent, The Kinks<\/em><\/p>\n

Call them late bloomers if you will. Compared to their fellow British invaders, The Zombies scored relatively few hits in the USA. And by the time their masterpiece, 1968’s Odessey and Oracle<\/em> (sic) started to gain any traction, the group’s members had gone their own ways. But mainstays Rod Argent<\/strong> and Colin Blunstone<\/strong> remained on good terms, and reunited under the Zombies banner in the 21st<\/sup> century. From their (re-)start they were determined not to be simply an oldies act, dutifully trotting out the classics. Still Got that Hunger<\/em> is strong start to finish, somehow evoking the group’s old sound without explicitly aping it. The Zombies’ most winning qualities \u2013 Argent’s skilled and hooky keyboard work and Blunstone’s assertive-yet-vulnerable vocals \u2013 are on impressive display.<\/p>\n

\u201cChasing the Past\u201d is a lovely example of Argent’s consummate songwriting skills and expressive, crystalline playing. And Blunstone’s voice \u2013 already a thing of heart-rending beauty \u2013 has actually improved over the years. \u201cEdge of the Rainbow\u201d shows that The Zombies \u2013 then as now \u2013 absorbed, assimilated and recast in their own way a myriad of influences from popular music (not simply rock). The musical fingerprints of George Gershwin<\/strong> and Ray Charles<\/strong> are all over the track.<\/p>\n

The heartfelt musical love letter \u201cNew York\u201d is a tribute that never feels like pandering. And Argent’s Wurlitzer electric piano on the tune illustrates that he need not be playing a complicated keyboard figure to impress.<\/p>\n

The only instance of the group retracing their musical steps is on an updated reading of their own \u201cI Want You Back Again (2015),\u201d and it’s a fine example of what the group sounds like onstage these days. Thanks to Argent’s facile work on the Rhodes, \u201cAnd We Were Young Again\u201d features strong echoes of Stevie Wonder<\/strong> and Steely Dan<\/strong>; it’s also the only track on Still Got That Hunger<\/em> that overtly sounds like another act.<\/p>\n