The new Monkees album Good Times! is due in stores May 27th and it celebrates the group’s 50th anniversary. Shortly after the death of Davy Jones in 2012, Mike Nesmith played a series of tours with surviving members Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork in honor of their fallen comrade. He contributes a song here and plays guitar on the new LP.
But the bigger news is that a bunch of closet Monkee fans are making big contributions to the album. “She Makes Me Laugh,” was written by Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo and other songs have been written by Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, XTC’s Andy Partridge, as well as Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller. There are also tunes written by Neil Diamond and Carole King in the 1960s that the group never got around to releasing. The album was produced by Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne. If you ask me this is a classic case of power pop giants given an excuse to lovingly look back at that past pop era we love.