The Monkees Return To Make Us Smile

The sunshine has returned to the pop music arena boys and girls. It comes from one of the least likely places you'd expect in the year 2016. Hey hey...the Monkees are in circulation again on the wings of a new album, "Good Times" which commemorates their 50 years together as a band. Wisely they recruited Weezer's Rivers Cuomo to produce the project. That has helped give the lead off single "She Makes Me Smile" a healthy dose of contemporary gloss but not at the expense of the classic Monkees sound, the one making you fixate on '60s beach babes, surfboards, and sand in your bathing suits. No one's lost his charm, despite the 2012 passing of Davy Jones turning the band into a three piece unit. Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork continue to mesh astoundingly well. Their twin guitar blend flashes you back to an era when America's concerns didn't look quite so hyper menacing. Micky's drumming keeps on keeping on in a mode that can and does win over generations of fans of varying stripes and temperaments. I definitely can make out something rather quaint about a song making reference to playing Scrabble with the guys. Board game themed game nights sound so passe these days. I mean...who does that? Part of the Monkeemania coming up for yet another batch of oxygen. I mean this band has more lives than a Cheshire cat. Just when you think they're dead in the water, they return to again prove that, in certain circles at least, they've managed to maintain their commercial viability. "She Makes Me Smile" epitomizes the inherent goodness which comes from knowing that a smile is merely a frown turned upside down. As was the case during the Monkees' heyday, pretty girls loom large on the landscape. Sure lyrics like "She's fine as any valentine are super corny but then again that's what made the Monkees' array of moonbeam inflected hits so gosh darn catchy in the same breath. Believe or not the three of them have put out a single suggesting they are having the time of their lives. I guess 50 years in it becomes possible to discern whether or not the thrill has officially gone. No such bad luck here. Mike Nesmith plucks guitar as if, despite his previous carping, he realizes there's a brotherhood factor to this band that refuses to give up the ghost. This latest girl makes the boys' collective motor run. How could she not be so totally irresistible when she makes them laugh, cry, and motivates them to think they'd like to hang out with her day and night. Though there was a tongue in cheek element to the Monkees TV show, the band's chops remain nothing to sneeze at. Good times indeed are in the offing. "She Makes Me Laugh" delivers proper incentive to make even the crustiest person break out into one of his brightest smiles.