ALBUM REVIEW: The Monkees - The Birds, the Bees & The Monkees

    1968 would prove to be disaster for the Monkees - by the end of the year, the show will have been cancelled, their first feature-length film a flop, their music continuously slipping off the charts, and member Peter Tork leaving the group at the end of the year. At the beginning of the year, though, things seemed more hopeful - The Monkees had just had their fourth number one album in a row, and the group's new approach to recording effectively meant that every member was making their own songs under The Monkees umbrella - the resulting late '67 to '68 sessions were so fruitful and full of material that it could easily fill multiple, incredibly good albums. The first album born out of these bountiful sessions certainly shows the variety that filled the minds of every individual member - country, psychedelia, sunshine pop, baroque pop, and even 1920s throwbacks. In essence, it can be called the group's White Album, just five months before the real thing and also half the length. Is it as good as Pisces? Well, I don't think so, but it certainly has the edge in terms of sheer diversity.

    Pinning down one particular style on this album is like trying to hit a fly on a dartboard - hardly do two consecutive songs hold any commonality in style. Opening the album with the Davy Jones track "Dream World" may make you think that you're in for a more traditional Monkees album, perhaps not dissimilar from their first two albums - guess what? Next track is the Byrds-esque "Auntie's Municipal Court," a driving country rock tune by Nesmith with a great Micky Dolenz vocal performance to boot. This dichotomy of different styles plays tug of war with itself across the rest of the album, from the sunshine pop of "P.O. Box 9847" and "Daydream Believer" - no "Goin' Down," but I can live - to psychedelic wonderment of "Writing Wrongs" and "Tapioca Tundra" to the vaudevillian "Magnolia Simms," which for all intensive purposes is Mike Nesmith's "Honey Pie." It may make the listening experience a little uneven, but you can at least rest easy knowing that you'll never get a "Bungalow Bill" or a "Revolution 9," right?

    Of course, the continuing maturity process of the group's music expands here, as if their productions are like a fine wine that gets better when left in a cabinet. From personal experience, I can tell you than the run of songs from "Tapioca Tundra" to the Side B opener of "I'll Be Back Upon My Feet" forever changed the way I looked at the Monkees - it was no longer "Then I saw her face, now I'm a believer," but "You have a way of making everything you say seem unreal" in my mind. That aforementioned song, "Writing Wrongs," still may very well be Nesmith's triumph, as psychedelic, interesting, and lyrically out there as any Beatles or Dylan song. "P.O. Box 9847" is a pop song sharpened to a fine point, courtesy of our usual Boyce/Hart duo. Remakes of "I'll Be Back Upon My Feet," "Valleri," and closing track "Zor and Zam" all make more than welcome additions, with the latter being one of the great unsung anti-war songs from the Vietnam era. Davy's output is even above typical caliber, with the solid opener "Dream World" and the weird and wonderful "The Poster." Only "We Were Made For Each Other" falls into that usual Davy schlock area - couldn't that have been filled with "Lady's Baby" for Pete's sake?

    The Birds, the Bees & The Monkees became the group's first album to not top the charts - it even completely missed the charts in the UK. The resulting summer single, the dreadful "D.W. Washburn" b/w "It's Nice to Be With You," peaked at only number 19. Even today, The Birds, the Bees & The Monkees is often a bit relegated to the side in comparison to their other records like Pisces, Headquarters, and their late '68 album Head. I wouldn't necessarily call The Birds underrated as much as I would overlooked, and when people are willing to see through the looking glass, they'll find a bold, brave album from what could've been an exciting new era for The Monkees - if only luck had been on their side.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to The Birds, the Bees & The Monkees.