Sunday, May 29, 2016

The Best Monkees Album Ever?


I've listened to "Good Times!" on repeat during most of this weekend. Some critics are outright stating that it's their best non-greatest hits album ever. I'm not sure if I am willing to make that leap, but I will state that if the year ended now it would be my blog's "Best Album of 2016."
I've met Micky Dolenz twice-- each time he flashed that trademark smile that you see him flash for album covers or on TV. He is a genuinely good guy, which is why this album's title track and "She Makes Me Laugh" blows fire with a '60s spirit that doesn't seem even slightly contrived. Weezer's Rivers Cuomo is obviously a major fan, and it shows with perfect vintage Monkees phrasing in "She Makes Me Laugh." Last week when I randomly heard it on internet radio I thought that it was a '60s Monkees hit that I somehow missed. Like the other Monkees, Dolenz's signing voice has lost nothing.
"Me And Magdalena" is probably Michael Nesmith's best work ever. He wrote "Different Drum" for Linda Ronstadt decades ago, so it's not a small feat. Sometime during my fifth listen to this song I got somewhat emotional-- it's just fucking gorgeous. Dolenz's backing vocals are perfect.
Peter Tork wrote and performed a solid tribute to the late, great Davy Jones titled "Little Girl," which he claims is a follow-up to "I Wanna Be Free."
Even the album's weaker moments aren't bad. The guys tried to replicate Oasis's sound for Noel Gallagher's lyrical contribution of "Birth of An Accidental Hipster." They mostly failed, but even a secondhand Noel Gallagher song is better than an average song. Nesmith's "I Know What I Know" falls well short of the greatness of "Me and Magdalena," but it's so stripped down, vulnerable and honest that I like it anyway.
These guys are septuagenarians, yet they are producing music that is as good or better than guys who are forty years younger.

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