Oh my!  This is a real treat. I’d heard She Makes Me Laugh via youtube and my initial reaction was that it was a Davy song and it made me a little bit sad that Micky was singing it, but it piqued my interest. You Bring The Summer was a jolly second release from the album but it was when I heard Me And Magdalena that I popped off to preorder the CD. (Obviously I’m a sucker for a gentle Nez vocal!)

So what of the first Monkees release of original since Justus in 1996. I’m still getting over the fact it’s been nearly 20 years since then. It’s simply quite lovely. Most of the songs are instantly singalongable.  The singles are certainly the most catchy tunes.

She Makes Me Laugh and Our Own World make me miss Davy as they seem (to me) to be suitable for his vocals. Don’t get me wrong, Micky sound bloody marvellous, but in my head they are Davy songs. Davy does get a lead vocal on the track Love To Love. A version of this appeared on the Missing Links releases but here they have taken his vocal and overdubbed modern instrumentation and backing vocals.

The album flows reasonably well, I confess I struggle with Little Girl, it will probably grow on me but on initial listens it seems to not quite fit. But there’s no doubting this is a Monkees album and it reflects each member really well.

As if Nez’s gorgeous vocal coupled with Micky’s harmonies on Me And Magdalena aren’t enough to keep me happy, their combined efforts on Birth of An Accidental Hipster blew my mind. I really wasn’t expecting to like the track but it is a mini masterpiece that would be right at home on a late sixties psych album.

I think this album will be getting a fair bit of play from me for some time.

And a vinyl edition is due for UK release in August too.