The Monkees- Good Times! (2016)

The Monkees- Good Times! (2016)

By: Ghost Writer

After the initial invasion of the Beatles to America, local music entrepreneurs devised a way to counteract the wild Beatlemania with an equal concept in order  to capitalize on the success of the "funny side", band on the road approach of the Beatles' movies, USA producers decided to create a group in order to make a quick buck, instead of a movie, they went for TV series, like the Beatles, the name was misspelled, the group was called the Monkees, and the series became a quick success, so it became a necessity to take the four "members" of the band in a nation all tour, the problem was that of the four members only two were amateur musicians, the other two were just actors, taking advantage of skilled studio musicians and young aspiring composers, a studio album was created with the voices of the four Monkees, it was an strategy commonly used by many top acts of the day like the Beach Boys and the Byrds, but the four guys quickly made advanced on their instruments and managed to get on a tour with legendary electric guitarist Jimi Hendrix, slowly becoming something more than just a prefabricated act and slowly gaining respect among their peers, even becoming an influential act on many future musicians.

Perhaps it's the fact that The Monkees sound has never fully depended just on the band itself but also on studio musicians that their sound has been able to be reproduced in such a faithful way these days, Good Times! sounds just like a Monkees' record from the past, it has managed to bring back the sound (with some compositions dating back to the classic 60s era) adding some modern touches and thanks to the help this time, not of young aspiring composer, but of well-known musicians and fans of the group to even come up with a superb couple of compositions, it might not be exactly transcendental, but no Monkees album was, but in the tradition of I'm a Believer, Last Train to Clarksville, Stepping Stone or Daydream Believer, it has songs that could easily sum up to that long list of legendary singles.

Opener Good Times! Is the perfect celebratory song for the 50th anniversary of the band, thanks to the posthumous use of legendary singer songwriter Harry Nilsson's killing voice along with soaring guitars, incendiary solos (by producer, guitarist, fan Andy Schlesinger) and singer Micky Dolenz characteristic voice, while the band takes out the 60s innocence and summer fun in You Bring The Summer, penned by XTC singer Andy Patridge, in a way Brian Wilson hasn't able to recreate lately, while undisputed first single She Makes Me Laugh, written by Weezer's main man Rivers Cuomo is a definite highlight here, matching perfectly with the Monkees vibe and becoming a beautiful nostalgic tune that could easily be a hit in the early records by the band.

Awesome melody is a must Our Own World, along with great keyboards played by Peter Tork and powerful bass playing by Schlesinger, is a song with beautiful vocals and amusing instrumental arrangements, again with Dolenz doing a great job in the microphone, while on Gotta Give It Time the band rocks really hard featuring a pumping organ played by Artie Butler and a whiplash guitar that doesn’t let the tune down in any time.

The band makes a small stop in the beautiful introspection of Me & Magadalena (written by Death Cab for Cutie leader Ben Gibbard) featuring the duo vocals of Dolenz and Mike Nesmith, is an impressive song that follows the folk leanings of the band not so much exploited, charging batteries quickly for the superb Whatever´s Right, another song that could have been a hit in the past, but is on Birth of an Accidental Hipster where the band really reaches zenith as a transcendental rock group, using a “little help from their friends” Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller in the composition department, the band does wonders to recreate the psychedelic magic of the 60s with some touches part The Monkees, part the Beatles to great effect and reaching the ambitious of a record like the misunderstood masterpiece Head.

Good Times! Is a great round album by a band best known for their legendary hit singles, here, the Monkees do their best, and succeed in creating a whole strong recording, a record that without a doubt, if made in the 60s would dissipate al, doubts about their worth as legitimate artists, it is a great piece of the past, a great sign that the Monkees talent is timeless and that things get by with a little help from really good friends.