The concept for The Monkees Present album actually dates back to before Peter left the group - it was going to be a double album, with each Monkee getting their own side of music to show off their individual ideas. This idea was obviously shelved after Peter Tork left the group, but there still exists some interpretations (one custom mix of the album by one SonicLoveNoize is pretty good, even). Even still, ideas of what could've been lie on The Monkees Present that we actually got, albeit the result is what is probably the single most scattered album the group has put out to date. Each member gets four songs, and while each member definitely has their style (for the most part), the continuing contrast of styles is far less endearing here than on either The Birds, the Bees or even Instant Replay. It doesn't help that, in digging through their back catalog, they've pulled out some of their worst material to date.
In contrast to the scattered Instant Replay, The Monkees Present is mostly new material, save for two Davy songs. Mike is, as you probably guessed, making a proto-First National Band record, and doing a damn-good job with it. Go figure, he consistently has the best material on the album, from the high-flying "Good Clean Fun" to the iconic "Listen to the Band," which was debatably the group's final hit (and backed with the excellent "Someday Man" on the B-Side, by the way). Even the cuts that don't quite hit these moments like the more jaunty "Never Tell a Woman Yes" or the more divisive "Oklahoma Backroom Dancer" certainly do their part, and frankly I find the latter to make a great penultimate track. Micky has a good chunk of material, although really his stuff is hit or miss - "Little Girl" is a fine opener, and "Pillow Time" makes a cutesy closer, but the other tracks fall on dead ears - look no further than "Mommy and Daddy," which has an uncensored version that whips the hell out of the version that we actually got.
That leaves Davy, and ironically he's even more hit or miss than Micky. At his best, the songs are up there with some of the best Mike material - this is where you get your atmospheric, almost lounge-sounding songs like "If I Knew" and "French Song" are definite album highlights, but they are properly and assuredly balanced out by two leftovers from More of the Monkees that made their way onto this record - the "rocker" "Looking For the Good Times" and the truly awful "Ladies Aid Society." Of all songs they could've recycled, why did it have to be these two? "Someday Man" was a B-Side sitting patiently for you to put on this album, but you didn't - fuck sake, "Kicking Stones" would've been better.
With everything they had to work with or to create, the final product is decisively the worst Monkees album yet. Mike Nesmith left at the end of 1969, putting the future of the Monkees even further into uncertainty - in his absence, the group would go full circle, but that's a review for next time. It's an incredibly mixed bag, and one with some particularly horrid moments at that. Grab Mike's songs, and a Micky and Davy song each, and leave the rest in the back - watch it run.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to The Monkees Present.
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