Mickey Dolenz the lead singer/former drummer of the Monkees is back with his first solo album in nine years but there is a twist- he is singing his bandmate’s music, Mike Nesmith. Nesmith has been of the main songwriters of the Monkees, his solo career, and the First National Band, so Dolenz is touching on his bandmate’s whole career. The other twist is that Dolenz worked on this album with Nesmith’s son producer Christian arranging the songs with a different style or take based on how Dolenz interprets it. He came up with the idea years ago from his friend Harry Nilsson and his “Nilsson Sings Newman” album.
I will say this, Mickey is my favorite Monkees member based on his singing skills and being the original drummer that he does a great job singing all of these tracks. He sounds like a man half his age across all styles or varieties and can hit all the notes. That he does a good job blending new music styles with songs almost fifty years old making it sound like fresh new songs.
He does three Monkees songs, one which is unreleased in “Carlise Wheeling” that Nesmith supposedly did in his solo group that sounds like a Monkees song, but then “Circle Sky” which he ruined by pretending to be the Beatles making it South Asian style. The third one is “Don’t wait for me” from their 1969 “Instant Replay” album, where he improves it because it sounds like a lovely acoustic song but more for an unplugged rock song than Nesmith’s whiny country twang version. While the song “Different Drum” was a Linda Ronstadt song that has country vibes but he tries to make it poppy badly.
I do like Mickey’s take on “Keep on” which is from Nesmith’s “And the hits just keep on Comin”, as it makes this country rock song a really good song that rocks out like a plain rock song! He also makes the song “Little red rider” into a great rock session compared to its simple sound it has and proves he can still be a great rock singer. He does show off his nice singing voices on both tracks “Marie’s theme” which is an odd song on synthesizer, and a really beautiful song “Nine time blues” which is a nice piano ballet which Nesmith did on “The Johnny Cash show but on acoustic guitar.
Tracks “Tomorrow and Me” and “Only Bound” are nice quiet acoustic tracks while the other three are either odd or have an interesting sound to it. “Propinquity” rocks for a song with banjo in it, “Tapioca Tundra” is a very odd song as it could have been on “Head” as its really trippy, and the final two tracks “Grand Ennui” have a bluesy piano sound to it, plus “You are my one” is hardly even a song as it’s barely a minute.
Overall it’s a mess which might be the point of going all over the Nesmith songwriting career/discography with interesting takes on some songs and some takes that improve the song too. One thing is for sure Mickey Dolenz still has it a singer/musician/entertainer/rockstar as he keeps doing Nesmith songs which he has been doing since the Monkees started and will never stop.
