Thanks to my brother, I was rather immersed in the world of The Monkees in my youth. I'm a fan of all the early albums and even managed to see a midnight showing of their bizarre movie Head. They're often a bit shat upon in the cultural zeitgeist but they really do have a quality catalog of songs. I could listen to this or this on repeat for days.

That being said, seeing that they had a new album was a bit shocking. They've been around for 50 years now and frontman Davy Jones died in 2012. But, if death didn't stop the Beatles from releasing new music, why should it stop The Monkees?

Fun facts about this record beyond the posthumous Jones appearance. 1) The title track, "Good Times" features Harry Nilsson on duet vocals (also dead) and was a demo from the 1960's that was started with Monkee Michael Nesmith and never finished until now. 2) Fountains of Wayne Adam Schlesinger produced it. 3) Rivers Cuomo wrote the latest single. 4) Andy Patridge of XTC worked on the record, a real treat given that he's mostly left pop music behind.

The most surprising thing about the album isn't that it exists but that they managed to make it a good listen.