Pool It!

by

The Monkees

Edit

The Monkees earned their stripes on the 1986 comeback tour (I saw them twice when they swung through Florida) and i was absolutely spellbuond when I heard they had a brand new album coming out the following summer after all of their original albums charted the year before (in addition to a pretty decent showing on the charts for "That was Then, This Is Now"). The results, while not a totally 60s-sounding album, are not so bad for a band that had been apart the better part of twenty years. I was most impressed with "Heart & Soul" and felt they were totally robbed of a worthy hit single when MTV pulled a complete "sour grapes" move in retaliation for the Monkees not being able to make it to an MTV promotion in early 1987 and replaced "Heart & Soul" on their daily video countdown show (where it was getting extremely heavy voting) with "Honestly" by the Christian metal band Stryper. as a result, the single sank after charting somewhere around #80. "Heart & Soul" was easily as good as any single they'd recorded before and was actually similar to "Start Me up" by The Stones in style. there was no reason that song should have suffered the fate it was dealt. The rest of the album was a decent effort to bring their sound into the 80s, and while it wasn't always successful at doing so, it certainly wasn't anywhere near as unlistenable as some would have you believe. Take it for what it was, a chance to get some new material out there while the iron was hot, with a few pleasant surprises ("Midnight", "Gettin' In" and "Every Step of the Way" are definite high points) and the good sense to have Roger Bechirian produce the album. It might have been a different album with the participation of Mike Nesmith; but with him not in the picture save for one show of the '86 tour and not another appearcne from him until sometime in '89...not a bad effort. The live show was one not to be missed about this time either, with over three dozen songs in the set list and almost half of this album, a great mix of old and new...something for everyone. Judge for yourself and keep an open mind! My copy of the LP is autographed by all three of them from back then, so this holds an even greater memory for me!

I bought this reissue when it first came out in '95 (I've never had the vinyl version), and I have to say I'm mildly impressed, but not greatly. To my ears, there's not really much if anything about the album that is deserving of heaps of praise. It has a good "80s" sound (I'm a fan of '80s pop, some of it anyway [so sue me]), but to me that's not enough to really make it great. As with the majority of the group's earlier material, session musicians play most of the music on this album. (The extent of the Monkees' instrumantal contributions: Peter plays guitar on one song [ "Gettin' In," which he wrote]. That's it.) Three of the best songs on the album are sung by Micky: "Heart And Soul," "Don't Bring Me Down," and "Whole Wide World" (which is a "cover" version --- a rare thing from the Monkees). Davy sings two of the album's best songs: "Every Step Of The Way," which is another "cover" version, and "Long Way Home," which is a reflective, sort-of medium-tempo ballad. As usual, there are also a couple of slow, romantic Davy-sung ballads (one of which was written by Davy himself). Neither of these is particularly impressive. "Counting On You" (the one that wasn't written by Davy) is the better one, but that's not really saying much. Peter sings two songs on the album: a piece of corn called "Since You Went Away" and the above mentioned "Gettin' In," which is the better of the two and also one of the best songs on the album (even though it is kind of weird). Mike Nesmith is nowhere to be found on this album, so to me it doesn't really feel like a true "reunion" album. Still, it's a good, listen-worthy record. (Note [from May '12]: As I said at the beginning of this review, I actually wrote the review for the CD-only, no-bonus-material reissue that came out in '95; it technically isn't really for the recently-released CD+DVD reissue that has two bonus tracks. [By the way, those are "MGBGT," which is a "live" track --- with a lead vocal by Peter --- that was the B-side of "Heart And Soul," and the single version of "Every Step Of The Way." I like the latter better, but I don't know if I'd say it's better than the album version of that song. And, I can't really comment on the DVD, as I haven't seen it --- at least not yet!] Apparently, in true, confusing Amazon fashion, reviews for BOTH reissues are all lumped together, as though the two reissues are the SAME release. What I have to say about the "old" reissue applies to the "new" reissue too, I suppose, but Amazon REALLY needs to stop confusing items and reviews --- and customers!)