I've already listened to the Lp 10 times in 18 hours beating Justus by two or three full listens since 1996 and Pool it by about 7.
Along with the poignant "Me & Magdelena", "Accidental Hipster" is the pick of the bunch for me, a very fun retro psychedelic tune, but I think they did a great job overall of balancing the material here, old and new. Good Times! is far better than I could have hoped for from the Monkees at this stage of the game, a fun album to kick off the summer.
Yeah I guess I'm in the minority on this . The Byrds version is so amazing, a perfect record, so for me this one falls flat. The joy of it is just sucked out.
"Regional Girl" was the first Monkees track we ever played on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. If memory serves, it was the third track on our very first show, December Somethingth 1998, following The Poptarts and Shonen Knife (the latter covering "Daydream Believer").
Well, it's pretty much impossible to top the Byrds version in my book, ingrained as it is with that movie sequence and the wonderful Notorious album, but I think that they wisely went for a different kind of feel with this Monkees version. It's no patch on the original, but I like it well enough for what it is. Though I'm a much bigger Beach Boys fan overall, I have to say that Good Times! trumps That's Why God Made The Radio pretty easily for me. Both of them have a self consciously retro feel, but the Monkees crew were more successful at replicating that old pop sparkle with new material and the production is much better too. I can't get over how great Micky's voice sounds.
So far, my Summer will include playing of Good Times! in the car and home, along with the blue vinyl of The Monkees LP at home! I'm going to listen to the new album via my Amazon download. I promised that I would not open the CD and play it until tomorrow on the way to The Monkees concert at The Keswick!
Nobody is disrespectful of The Monkees or the album in this thread. Some people, including me. Said that the bonus track A Better World isin't very good, after a couple people gushed over how great it is. It isin't, couldn't be great to any objective listener, in fact it verges on being bad. But some people love the Monkees so much, they praise everything, regardless of quality. That's ok, it's like drinking the koolaid that can't harm anyone. It's a great album, but a better world is pretty mediocre to 98% of the people who hear it I'm sure. I would like to hear the last one, Love is what I want, but after hearing Better World, I wouldn't even consider spending $20 bucks for that one song
Am I the only one bothered that there are three songs in a row on the track listing that start with "I..."? ("Yes, Paul").
well, now you are talking about prime rib vs. a juicy little hamburger...sounds stripped and simple, but love Tork's voice for this.
Me & Magdelena V2 is pretty good, but I much prefer the album version. I think V2 would have made an awesome instrumental though.
Is the bonus track "Love Is What I Want" available today from anywhere/ANYplace?! It's the only bonus track I haven't heard yet. Picked up the FYE version today w/bonus track; the store had a total of 7 copies and NONE of the regular 13 track one... and my disc came with stickers inside! (true!) (Speaking of bonus tracks.....) The Monkees - Topic »
My standard 13 track CD arrived today, & I heard the album through an actual inexpensive stereo instead of the Android, wow good album. Compared to recent studio albums by some of their contemporaries, The Beach Boys, The WHo, Dave Davies, McCartney, The Zombies. This is the best one, & I like all the ones I mentioned. I'm used to listening on tiny speakers now, so just on a cheap home stereo wow great, Hipster, Magdalena 1&2, YBTS, Makes Me Laugh, Our Own World, just fab. Right up my alley, sounds like they used some vintage amps, instruments, mics, but used protools style digital equipment, it all works. Excellent material, I'm impressed with Schlesinger, very much. Both Dolenz & Nesmith sing great on this. Tork vocally is less strong, but not bad. Going from a 1967 Jones song to a track cut a few months ago, I didin't hear jarring unpleasant sonic mismatches from one tune to another. For my personal version, doing a little executive producing, I'd listen to it something like this 1 You Bring The Summer 2. Birth Of A Hipster 3. Our Own World 4 Love To Love 5. I Know What I Know 6. Whatever's Right 7. She Makes Me Laugh 8 Me & Magdalena # 2 9. Terrifying 10 Your Personal Penguin 11 Little Girl 12 I Was There, Had A Good Time Course I haven't heard Love is what I want, or checked running times
Hahaha just happy that two of my favorite artists can still release excellent, relevant albums at this stage of the game
Well, after taking a listen it's not bad at all - a bit of a mixed bag and definitely a bit of an Indie tint to it (not that this is a bad thing). I already liked "She Makes Me Laugh" but the other two singles I more apathetic about. So the first half didn't particularly wow me too much (too much Dolenz...sorry buddy). But the second half had some interesting tidbits - starting with the Jones reissue / remix(?), the two Tork tunes which I actually liked a lot, and the Nesmith song. That was a good flow. And I think I like the v2 Magdalena more than the regular album version. So overall not necessarily in my Top Ten this year, but a few good tunes in there.
I attended the Good Times listening party at Vintage Vinyl in Fords, NJ. When you purchased the cd you also received a few additional goodies: a poster with the album art, stickers featuring items from the album cover, and a Good Times coloring book with photos that references songs from the album. Vintage Vinyl also had a raffle and after the entire cd was played the winning names were called and those folks won special prizes. One person received a grab bag of goodies which included Good Times balloons and the Record Store Day Monkees picture disc. Another person won a Good Times tote bag which included among the goodies the ten cd complete classic albums box set. Vintage Vinyl is a great record store where which offers a wide and varied selection of music of all types and also have live events, Peter Tork in fact did an in store appearance back in the 90's. The store is worth checking out if you're in the area. It was a lot of fun being in the store with fellow Monkees fans and just digging the new album.
At the end of "Accidental Hipster" when the guitar starts, I can't help but to imagine an extended 2+ minute instrumental continuing on at the end. I think that would have been really cool. I feel like it fades too soon. In other words, it's so good, I want MORE! Still lovin' the album!
My wife picked this up at FYE this morning ($9.99), and I've given it the first listen. VERY impressed with the performances & song selections! ("Hipster" was awesome!) One question: I had to turn my receiver/amp down when I hit "play". It's a louder CD than what I'm used to, and I'm looking for comments from more discerning (& younger) ears. I'm giving thought to buying the FLAC version from HD Tracks.
