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(reviewed by Casey Brennan)
The Monkees, as every knows, were a group made up by T.V. producers with the splendid idea of making a Rock band sitcom, full of slapstick and energetic humor. The idea was based upon the success of the Beatles cartoon series of a year earlier, so it was bound to make a profit. But before the show was even started the album was made, which is what needs to be reviewed here. Not the show (even if it is a decent nostalgic show). The members of the group that were ultimately picked worked well; Davy was the cute one, Mickey the goofy one, Mike the serious one, and Peter, well he was just Peter. Strangely enough David Crosby whom was in the band the Byrds at the time tried out for an audition to be in the group but didn't make it because of bad teeth (or something like that). hehe
Anyway, this first album from the Monkees (the first and best 'teeny-bopper' group there ever was), turns out to be a very good one, due to the songwriting teams of Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart and Carole King/Gerry Goffin, who were genius's during their time at making girl-boy pop/rock songs which are often quite melodic. It also helped out that a memorable theme song called "(Theme From) the Monkees" kicks off the set with its' famous walking rythym and enthusiastic chorus. The instrumental part in the middle is worth mentioning as it contains an exciting keyboard/guitar buildup, giving the song a well-needed edge. The even better 'Saturday's Child', another highlight on here, has a very decent lead guitar solo that builds up to a climax in the middle before swinging back into the infectious pop tune it is.The wonderful chorus is enough to make it a Monkees classic.
Like the rest of the tunes that follow these two opening tracks are characteristic of the innovative era they were made in; influenced by the sounds of folky pop/rock and Rubber Soul-era Beatles work, this album takes in the creative vibe by using cellos (in a poppy way), harpsichords, or whatever else every now and then to add flavor. This album isn't revolutionary or anything (it's a Monkees album for godsake!), but this is probably the most fresh-sounding and least cheezy Monkees album, although maybe not the best. Unlike the many orchestrated Davy Jones-sung ballads to come on the following albums, "I Wanna Be Free" is probably the least shmaltzy and overdone of them all, as the harpsichord is a nice acommpanient to the tune, and the melody and vocals are quite pretty.
The same also holds true for the decent Mike Nesmith-penned "Sweet Young Thing", which with its' folky almost raga-flavored melody and country n' western vibe sounds almost too 'professional and un-cute' to be made from a band like this (but one of the Monkee's in fact wrote this successful catchy tune). Mike Nesmith was obviously the most musically talented of all the band-members, as his "Sweet Young Thing" and the tasteful "Papa Gene's Blues" (an entertaining ditty) included on here rank up there with the rest of them. The harmonic jangly pop of "Last Train To Clarksville", the creative "Take a Giant Step" (which has an excellent chorus), and my personal favorite "This Just Doesn't Seem To Be My Day" (a tune carried out by irresistablely-sung verses and a lovely cello-laced chorus) are other strong tunes on here too.
"I'll Be True To You" is a nicely-done Davy Jones ballad (well, not written by him but sung by him) which has a corny spoken-word middle part and a touch of glockenspiel. "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day" and the straightforward rock n' roll dance song "Let's Dance On" are more middle of the road tunes on here, although not by any means bad. Closing off the album is the bands in-joke "Gonna Buy Me A Dog", which has a groovy backbeat and some ultra-corny but fun humor in it. The Monkees first album turns out to be the backbone of the sound for all the forthcoming Monkees albums. As a very decent collection of pop tunes from the band, it is easily guaranteed a high 7.
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(reviewed by Casey Brennan)
This was released a mere three months after the first album. It is almost a replica of The Monkees except that this time around the songs are relatively weaker, and the production just a little cuter and bubble-gummy. The actual Monkees themselves were angry that they were less involved with this album then the previous one, and also thought that some of the tunes weren't strong enough to be released (Nesmith was unhappy that he couldn't contribute more than two tunes on here). Still, the record is extremely enjoyable and does contain a few great songs. My pick for the best song on here would be "She", an extremely hook-filled and melodic pop-rocker that is known for its' engaging organ line, which gives the song a mighty presence. The groovy "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" and the ultra-catchy "I'm A Believer" aren't too far behind though, becoming Monkees standards on their own.
Even though the rest of the material doesn't quite reach these highs, the rest of the songs each have something to offer, except for maybe the horrible "The Day We Fall In Love", which as a follow-up to "I Wanna Be Free" is quite a monster, with laughable spoken-word lyrics 'we'll walk hand in hand, in snow or in sand', sappy orchestration, and a horrible melody to boot. Bubble-gum romance-pop at its' worst. Besides this, the rest is very pleasant and insubstantial (that goes without saying) pop. The odd "Your Auntie Grizelda", a slightly acid-tinged novelty tune with shaky vocals by Peter Tork (as the only damn contribution he was allowed to make on the album, he must of surely felt idle - not that the others did much more!), is a neat tune, while "Hold On Girl" and "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)" are fun and harmless tunes sung by Davy Jones.
Another country-tinged Nesmith song called "The Kind Of Girl I Could Love", the innocent "Sometime In The Morning", and the shake-shake rythym of "Mary Mary" are all decent too. The weakest of the nice tunes would have to be the ditty "When Love Comes Knockin' (At Your Door)", a nice slice of ear candy, and the ridiculous "Laugh", which with very corny lyrics - 'laugh ha haha ha, if I take all your money' is retardedly funny. All in all, More Of The Monkees is a quickly assembled second release, with lots of harmless tunes, and a couple great ones; after this one the Monkees would actually start playing 'some' of the instruments and write more of the tunes.
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(reviewed by Casey Brennan)
Headquarters was the happiest time of the bands career, as it showed the Monkees taking a more active role by actually writing half of the tunes (even if two of them are in-jokes that are less than a minute long each), and playing a decent amount of the instruments. Just by looking at the pictures inside the liner notes and on the back cover, you can tell that they were geared towards proving that they could make a decent album without always using outside songwriters for every track. Hell, they even grew beards and moustaches for a week or two during the sessions. Only after realizing how stupid they looked is when they probably decided to shave the shit off (I'm assuming this because there is only two pictures of them with full beards in the liner notes - they musta thought it was a sign of maturity.)
Anyway, the album itself turns out to be very good. The fun-in-the-studio vibe is immediately heard on the beginning of the albums opening track "You Told Me", which is a fine Nesmith-penned number, with a countryish finger-pickin' guitar sound upfront, and some high harmonies in the background of this jangly tune. "Shades Of Gray" is a serious pop effort from the band (they didn't write it but they arranged it), as it is pretty much an amazing ballad with an admiring piano intro, and a beautiful melody backed by strings and yearning steel guitar. Pretty good for a 'cute' pop band huh? Well, there is also the driving "For Pete's Sake", which is a hip rocker with frantic organ stabs and lively vocals, and the creative Mickey Donlenz closer "Randy Scouse Git", a comedic piano-led ditty on the verses, leveled out by bombastic sections after the thundering drums come in.
More good pop melodies are found in the lightweight "Forget That Girl", where the falsetto harmonies are a treat, the weepy "I'll Spend My Life With You", and the shady "Early Morning Blues And Greens", which also uses the studio to good effect. Contributing to the record's fun atmosphere are the in-jokes "Band 6", an interesting snippet of speeded-up playing, and the tounge-twisting "Zilch" which shows the band messing up and start to giggle. The remaining Mike Nesmith tunes are of the same quality as usual too; "You Just May Be The One" is simple and good jangly pop, while "Sunny Girlfriend" reminds me of a 'good' Lovin' Spoonful tune. Although not the most memorable tune, it is certainly tastefully played (and better than most non-hit 'album tracks' on a Lovin' Spoonful record). The quiet and ghostly "Mr. Webster" (with some more fine steel pedal guitar) can't be forgotten either.
The only two dissappointments on here, and they are slight ones, is the fun but hasty "No Time" (another attempt at a straightforward Beatlish R n' B rock n' roller) and the dippy "I Can't Get Her Off My Mind", which is the only real corny tune on here. Those two weaker tunes weren't even written by the Monkees, so in the end Headquarters proves that the band had a stroke of talent, as any original tune on here is every bit as good as any of the Boyce/Hart cuts and so forth. A step up from the pleasant More Of The Monkees in every way; not quite an excellent album but one of the funnest mid-60's pop albums out there.
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(reviewed by Casey Brennan)
Unlike the happy recording sessions of Headquarters, this album showed the Monkees in a more depressed state, as they were getting bashed left and right from the public and media, who dismissed them as being a fake group with no artistic credibility whatsoever. Well, it's true that they weren't real in the 'band' sense, but the music sure has credibility (the quality of the Monkees albums are usually just as good as other pop bands from the time: Lovin' Spoonful, The Rascals, Donovan, etc.) Speaking of credibility, this album has a good deal of it. Certain songs like "Salesman" and "The Door Into Summer" really sound like 'mature' songs, or at least more un-cute than before. The crisp and clear vocals by Nesmith, effective guitar twanging and plucking, and upbeat presence, give these two songs a self-assured edge not heard on earlier albums.
Also the sound and production of the album is updated to the psychedelic scene, so strings, horns, and sound effects, plus a little bit of synthesizer (the first use of it on a known Rock album), make their appearance on here. Still quite a bit of the usual pop that the Monkees are known for (which is always a good thing), just that it's a tad updated. This is clearly the Monkees at their peak when it comes to the actual songs; there are plenty of really great melodies abound in tunes like "Cuddly Toy" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday", plus some ear-catching and interesting psychedelic-rock in the form of "Love Is Only Sleeping" and "Words".
Side one of Pisces is especially good, with the aforementioned "Salesman" starting things off on a quick note; a catchy two-minute thumper with grainy vocals, and some echoey background vocals added for good measure during the bridge. This is followed by the great sissy pop song "She Hangs Out", which contains a tough beat and is highlighted by the brassy and up-tempo bridge. The winning streak is continued with the tight and memorable "The Door Into Summer", the echo-laden and atmospheric "Love Is Only Sleeping" (a decent pop song made better with all it's effects), the well-known "Words", and the corny but incredibly infectious "Cuddly Toy", which is probably the best thing on the whole album. This wonderful song has less innocence than it appears and is one of those songs that sticks in your head, because of its' addictive sing-a-long nature to it.
Starting off side two is the Davy Jones-sung ballad "Hard To Believe", the first of the many over-saccharine and heavily orchestrated tunes found on later Monkees albums. Fortunately, this one works real well. Moving on forward, a few of the songs on the latter half of Pisces don't leave much of an impression; "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?" is a fairly average countryish-folkster, and the loungy "Don't Call On Me" is just kinda boring.
More than making up for it though is the delightful "Pleasant Valley Sunday", the moog-inflected "Daily Nightly" (back in April of 67'), where Mickey creates some remarkably good sound effects from the damn instrument, and the un-stoppable closer "Star Collector". The latter is a poppy tune that becomes a jam less than half-way through that is driven by keyboard, and two moog synthesizers - a psychedelic one in the background and a shiny one in the forefront that sounds kinda goofy and clumsy, but works well. Finally a Mickey Donlenz yelling 'bye-bye bye-bye' and a excellent bass fade-out, end the song and album in a fine way.
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(reviewed by Casey Brennan)
Following their peak album Pisces, this release is somewhat of an odd one in the Monkees canon. For one thing, after getting swallowed up with "Hard To Believe", Davy Jones must have thought it would be a good idea to write (and/or sing) a whole bunch of these Tom-Jonsey (am I right about that?) type ballads which are high on shmaltz and heavily arranged. At the same time though, Mike Nesmith was coming into his own and writing a large amount of the material. As he was quickly becoming a serious artist at this point and ready to work on his first solo album The Wichita Train Whistle Sings, these songs are of a highly different order than on previous Monkees albums. They are more complex (most notably ''Writing Wrongs''), and show him in an unusual and experimental stage on his career.
As you can imagine, this set is pretty uneven with the shmaltzy Davy Jones cuts sitting right next to the offbeat Nesmith numbers, which for the most part don't even sound like they come off of a Monkees album. An interesting offering to say the least, but not a very good one at all. Worst of all, as you probably have figured out is the Davy Jones crap. The opening track "Dream World" which immediately lets one know that they are in for a sappy ride, and "We Were Made For Each Other" are both respectfully arranged, but over-sickening and badly written tunes. You know it's not good when you find out that the former is actually one of the first tunes that Davy Jones ever wrote. blah. The only thing making "Dream World" a tad worthwhile is the 'nice' atmosphere and touch of harpsichord.
Meanwhile, "I'll Be Back Up On My Feet Again" is probably the most half-baked of all the tracks, while "Zor and Zam" is quite foolish (but not bad by any means), and "The Poster" (which at least has a decent melody) is another one of those sickeningly arranged numbers, that makes you want to pull out the paper bag. The Nesmith tunes are at least more worthwhile, although they are pretty much hit or miss too. "Auntie's Municipal Court" may be the poorest, as it is distinguished by a weak and impoverished riff, and leaves an overall bad taste in the mouth, while the lengthy and most serious composition on here "Writing Wrongs", is only good in its' haunting beginning and ending parts, as the un-descript jam in the middle just bores and doesn't captivate in any way.
The other two are quite successful; "Magnolia Simms" is a lovely ditty which is created to sound like its' coming out of a radio from the 1920's (which explains why everything is coming out of one speaker), and the snappy and lightly experimental "Tapioca Tundra", which is an awesome latin-tinged number with a lot of spark. Luckily, the well-crafted "Daydream Believer" (the best of the shmaltz) and "Valleri" (catchy as hell of course), plus the just plain weird "P.O. Box 9847" also help the album from being a complete waste of time. A nice atmosphere is created by the Nesmith tunes, but overall the continually weaker material given to them by outside songwriters, contributes in making this the most mediocre Monkees album thus far.
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