Monkees - Monkees (Dlx)
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Free Music Notes for Monkees (Dlx)
Free Music Review: I'm so mad I could squish grapes!
Hit: 4 Stars
This, of course, is the legendary first album by the Monkees. Most of the album was produced by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, with the exception of the two Michael Nesmith songs, which Nesmith produced himself. Most of the material is quite good. The weak parts of the album, to me, are the Davy Jones songs. Nothing against Davy, but he often got stuck with drippy ballads on the Monkees albums. A case in point would be "I'll Be True to You" (ugh) on this album. But, credit where credit is due, "I Wanna Be Free" is actually a pretty good ballad sung by Davy. Personally, my favorite song here is Mike's "Sweet Young Thing". This two cd "deluxe" edition features both the stereo and mono versions of the album. In addition, there are 17 bonus tracks. Most of these bonus tracks were previouly released on a prior version of this cd, or on one of the three "Missing Links" cds, but it's nice to have them all in one place. The previously unreleased tracks are mostly alternate mixes of previously released songs. This is a really well put together set, but only hardcore Monkees fans will need to own both the stereo and mono versions of the album.Free Music Review: Definitive edition
Hit: 4 Stars
Throw all your old versions away, here is the keeper. A two disc beauty that pulls together all the period out-takes as well as the stereo and mono versions of the first album, packaged with new liner notes and studio photos. I generally would tend to frown on re-packaging an album that has ALREADY had the re-issue treatment (done quite well in 1994, I might add), but if its done like this, I'm the first to open the wallet. That said, this album was never one of my favorites (heres to hoping that Headquarters and Pices get the same treatment), but the plethora of out-takes from the early Mike Nesmith helmed sessions give you a taste that the Monkees were involved in even these early sessions a bit more than we may have expected. Since this is a limited edition, I would suggest that you get this before its too late.Free Music Review: Monkees - 'The Monkees-Deluxe Edition' (Rhino/WEA)
Hit: 4 Stars
A decent 2-CD,41 track collection of the made-for-television band(some say they were an insult to the Beatles)the Monkee's best cuts.Instead of the usual ho-hum hits,I wanted to list some of the lesser-known deep album cuts that I've always liked,such as "Saturday Child"(one of my personal favorites),"Papa Gene Blues","Sweet Young Thing"(didn't Chocolate Watchband cover this tune?),"All The King's Horses" and the catchy "Gonna Buy Me A Dog".This release also seems to have it's share of re-edits and alternative version of songs.A nice compilation,but in all fairness,I'd have to say this one is pretty for aimed toward the completists and die-hard fans.Free Music Review: A Monkeemaniac's Dream Come True
Hit: 4 Stars
This deluxe edition is a first class reissue of the debut album. Everything from packaging and liner notes to track inclusion and sound quality is first rate, making this the definitive CD edition.
That having been said, I would recommend this more to a devoted Monkeemaniac. If you are a casual Monkees fan, seek out the previous single-disc remaster from Rhino. Both are good in terms of quality, but the deluxe edition is targeted to Monkee devotees.
Free Music Review: how in the world did they ever become so huge?
Hit: 3 Stars
A middling album with a lot of uninteresting songs. How it ever became such a sensation is anybody's guess. The three stars are for the overall album as an interesting trove of different takes (different primarily, or exclusively, in who took the lead vocal on a given song), but really, how often you'll listen to the same album in stereo and then mono depends entirely on how rabid a fan you already are. However, what I find truly uncanny is not only that they were "fabricated" but that they got away with a whopping amount of what you might call "further and more sophisticated fabrication." Many songs, outside of their hits, cleverly but blatantly imitated important artists of the day - not a complete song, not a specific riff, but more intelligently, the overall sound or atmospheric idea. Credit must be given to their various songwriters for copying so masterfully but also, and very eerily, for occasionally "predicting" music that was right around the corner but hadn't arrived yet. A few examples: "I'm not your steppin' stone" is almost explicitly Steppenwolf in atmospherics, but something like "Mary, Mary" is much subtler - a bit of Jefferson Airplane, epitomized by Kaukonen's metallic and echoey guitar. A lot of songs sounded like generic but very pretty "adult" music of the time, meaning that they encompassed everything that was on the charts, from Mamas and Papas ("A little bit me...") to the Carpenters or Paul Mauriat ("So goes love") and Nilsson, one of their occasional writers (Propinquity); more important, "Papa Gene's blues" is Buffalo Springfield, "This just doesn't seem to be my day" is Traffic, "The girl I knew somewhere" and especially "I don't think you know me" are early Who (of their second and third album, where Townshend wrote several subdued, melodious and semi-acoustic ballads). And, of course, the opening riff on "Heart and Soul" reeks of the Stones, but "That was then" sounds creepily like the Eurythmics of "When tomorrow comes." Which probably proves that there were talented hack songwriters out there who had some brilliant ideas before anyone else, but knocking out songs for various Monkee-like bands as a 5 to 9 job will kill your talent really fast.