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Showing posts from December, 2018

281. The Monkees: Christmas Party (2018)

Continuing the Monkees renaissance that began with 2016's Good Times! is the band's first ever Christmas album .   Christmas Party follows the same blueprint as Good Times! It was produced by Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger. It also features prominent songwriters contributing new tunes. And all three living Monkees participated, with Davy Jones showing up via archival material. Good Times! was an unlikely confluence of my tastes (Monkees + Fountains of Wayne + XTC + Weezer), and this one is somehow even moreso. In addition to the return of those previous elements , Christmas Party has Peter Buck from R.E.M., a tune with lyrics by one of my favorite writers (Michael Chabon), backup vocals by singer/songwriter David Mead , and cover art by one of my favorite comic book artists (Michael Allred). Who at Rhino Records is inside my head? As with my other Monkees reviews, I'll break things into categories. New Songs All four of these tunes were written ne