MONKEES

This two-CD set, issued in Europe about a week before Rhino Records' expanded box appeared in America, resembles either a considerably expanded and upgraded version of the old Arista Records set Then & Now..., or a more entertaining successor to Rhino Records' 1998 Anthology. The first disc, running just under 80 minutes and containing 29 songs, is for the listener who wants the hits and the best album tracks all gathered in one place, including ubiquitous numbers like the television series' second-season end credit track, "For Pete's Sake." These have been remastered yet again, so there's lots of presence in all of the playing, and the vocals never sounded better; the songs all have thick, dense textures, much heavier and harder and upfront than they did on the radio in 1966-1967, with good stereo separation. This set is proof, as though any were needed, that the nicest thing ever to happen to the Monkees' music was getting it moved into the hands of Rhino Records, whose library was the source for these masters. The second disc, labeled a "Bonus CD," in a separate narrow sleeve within the slipcase, runs 78 minutes and covers 31 tracks, consisting of outtakes and oddities such as alternate takes of "Mr. Webster" and "Hold on Girl," the Italian-language version of "Theme From the Monkees" ("Tema dei Monkees"), plus tracks that only appeared on the television show and a brace of Michael Nesmith country music experiments -- the latter are strong enough that, if there were enough of them, they could have made a separate album that no one could have complained about, except that it wouldn't have sounded like "the Monkees" (although it would have been first-rate country-rock, and a match for anything out at the time or soon to be out from the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Bros., or Poco). Overall, the set has 40 minutes more music than the two-CD Anthology and is weighted somewhat more toward odd outtakes and Nesmith cuts at the expense of lesser group works such as "Zor and Zam." The annotation is extremely thorough, along with the session information, and the only complaint about the booklet is that it is printed perhaps one font too small for easy reading, given its length and depth. Bruce Eder.

Estimated despatch 5-10 days after ordering.