Wednesday, May 25, 2016

new monkees album: third time's a clunker

Only a couple days until the new Monkees album gets released, and Youtube has a third song posted:




Whereas I liked the other two songs ("She Makes Me Laugh" and "You Bring the Summer") that were previously posted, this one just brings me down. Mike and Mickey do a decent job of harmonizing, but the song is just boring. The lyrics aren't bad, but it needs a livelier melody -- or at least a faster tempo. If this is representative of the whole album, then the album will be worse than the 1987 reunion (Pool It!) and the 1996 reunion (Justus).


So, the question is, does this change my assessment? I think my last word was that I was unreservedly optimistic about the album? I guess, in a Bayesian sense this has to lower my expectations. Before this, there were two strong tracks released. I do note that, while I said they did a good job of capturing the sound of the Monkees, my wife pointed out (correctly) that they were a bit more Archies-like than I wanted to admit. But still, they were good. This dreck brings the average down. Now it' two strong tunes and a clunker.


I still, however, have hope. Youtube alo has a promotional clip in which the three surviving Monkees talk about the new album:




Snippets of the album play in the background, and on balance it's enough to keep me optimistic. Albeit reservedly so.

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