Emily: Unlike Zack, I was actually really excited to listen to the Bee Gees. Saturday Night Fever is one of my favorite movies, and their soundtrack is a big part of that. So many of those songs are classics – Stayin’ Alive, Night Fever, You Should Be Dancing, and so on and so forth. Yes, that album and movie are very disco and very dated, but I love them anyway. I was expecting something similar before I listened to Odessa. Unfortunately, that’s not what I got. I made the mistake of not looking at the date of the album before I listened to it. While I’m a fan of the Bee Gees circa 1977, Odessa hails from 1969 – way before the disco era and the sound that created my interest in the band. This album is less on the dance side, leaning more towards soft-rock ballads, instrumentals, and a bit of country influence. With my expectations as they were, I was underwhelmed by Odessa. That’s not to say it was a bad album; there’s some beauty in its understatement, especially with the instrumentals. But if you’re expecting John Travolta disco swagger, skip ahead to the Bee Gees of 1977.
Favorite Tracks: Whisper Whisper; Black Diamond; Never Say Never Again
Zack: If gambling were legal in our country, and if I could find a suckerrrrrrrr….I mean investor willing to place a prop wager against me on the matter, I would put a hefty sum on this being the most forgettable album of albums 101-200. I have already forgotten more of it than I did the last winner, uhhhhh. Never mind. Anyway, this is a double album, which makes it doubley as shrug-worthy. I can’t imagine any mood or activity that I could possibly be doing where I would want Odessa to be the soundtrack. Nothing. Even with metal, albums, I would want that playing while I fought a grizzle bear in the Octagon or something. But this? I just don’t want to hear it. Not because it’s bad, mind you. Because it elicits absolutely no response from me. If I’m taking the time to listen to something, I want to at least feel like I am invested in the music itself. If an album is bad, I have a powerful emotional response because I invested my time and I’m disappointed it was bad. The opposite is true for a good album. But with Odessa all I could muster was a “1 hour and 4 minutes of my life spent listening to that huh? Oh well.” And honestly, I expected a little more.
Favorite Tracks: Seven Seas Symphony; Marley Purt Driver; Suddenly
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