Christmas Party (The Monkees album) explained

Christmas Party
Type:	Studio
Artist:	The Monkees
Cover:	Monkeesxmascover.jpg
Recorded:	May, July–September 2018 Unknown, 1991 November 22, 1967 October 1976
Studio:	Lucy's Meat Market (Los Angeles) Omelette Station (New York City) The Doghouse (Los Angeles) Beatland Tours (Atwater Village) Institute for the Musical Arts (Goshen)
Genre:	Pop rock, Christmas music
Length:	37:48
Label:	Rhino
Producer:	Adam Schlesinger, Chip Douglas, Christian Nesmith, Jonathan Nesmith, Peter Tork, James Lee Stanley
Prev Title:	Good Times!
Prev Year:	2016
Next Title:	The Mike and Micky Show
Next Year:	2020

Christmas Party is the 13th and final studio album by the American pop rock band the Monkees, released on October 12, 2018, by Rhino Records. Produced mainly by Adam Schlesinger (with Michael Nesmith's tracks produced by his sons Christian and Jonathan), the album is the Monkees' first to focus on Christmas themes. It follows on the success of their 2016 album Good Times! The album features surviving Monkees Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, and Peter Tork, as well as two posthumous contributions from Davy Jones.^[1] It is the final Monkees studio album to be released prior to Tork and Nesmith's deaths in 2019 and 2021, respectively.

The album features a mix of covers of earlier Christmas songs (from "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Wonderful Christmastime" to the relatively obscure "Jesus Christ", originally by Big Star) and new holiday tunes written specifically for the album by several Good Times! contributors, including XTC's Andy Partridge, Weezer's Rivers Cuomo and Schlesinger.^[2] This is the only Monkees album on which there are no songs written by any member of the Monkees.

The Target store exclusive version features two additional tracks, "Riu Chiu" and "Christmas Is My Time of Year", vintage recordings from the group remastered and remixed by original Monkees producer Chip Douglas.^[3]

Cover

The album cover was illustrated by comics artist Michael Allred. Allred, a lifetime Monkees fan, recalled: "I can't even remember doing it now. I was on a crazy high trying to squeeze everything I could into it."^[4]

Reception

Christmas Party received a mixed review in The Guardian, who described it as "a curious hodgepodge" and gave it three out of five stars. The same score was given by The Arts Desk who described it as "a mixed bag of covers and original songs and some of it is a bit cheesy". The Los Angeles Times gave the album two and a half out of four stars, stating "the big calling card may well be two vocals that Davy Jones recorded in 1991 and that are newly outfitted in fresh instrumental accompaniment pulled together by album producer Adam Schlesinger." Variety did not rate the album, but described it as feeling "mostly like a Micky Dolenz solo album — co-produced by Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger — that happens to have a few odd interjections from Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and, yes, the late Davy Jones."^[5]

Personnel

Credits adapted from Target exclusive CD liner notes.^[6]

The Monkees

• Micky Dolenz – lead vocals (1–2, 4, 6–8, 10, 13–15)
• Davy Jones – lead vocals (3, 9, 14–15)
• Michael Nesmith – lead vocals (5, 11, 14)
• Peter Tork – lead vocals (12, 14), banjo (12), Hammond B3 organ (15)

Additional musicians

• Michael Eisenstein – electric guitars (1–4, 6–8, 13), acoustic guitar (6–8, 10), guitar (9)
• Adam Schlesinger – bass guitar (1–4, 6–10, 13), keyboards (1–2, 4, 7–8, 10, 13), guitar (1, 4), banjo (4), backing vocals (4), piano (7–8)
• Brian Young – drums (1–4, 6–10, 13), percussion (1–4, 6–10)
• David Mead – backing vocals (1–2, 4, 7–8, 10, 13)
• The Section Quartet (1, 9):
  • Daphne Chen – violin
  • Eric Gorfain – violin
  • Leah Katz – viola
  • Richard Dodd – cello
• Chip Douglas – ukulele (3), guitar (3, 15), bass guitar (15), vocals (15)
• Mike Swerdlow – steel guitar (3)
• Christian Nesmith – guitars (5), keyboards (5)
• Ian Walker – upright bass (5)
• Christopher Allis – drums (5)
• Pete Finney – pedal steel guitar (5)
• Circe Link – background vocals (5)
• Peter Buck – electric guitar (6–7), acoustic guitar (6)
• Jody Porter – electric guitar (6, 13)
• Scott McCaughey – electric guitar (6), acoustic guitar (6), backing vocals (6), piano (6), celeste (7)
• Jonathan Nesmith – all instruments (11), background vocals (11)
• James Lee Stanley – 6-string guitar (12), 12-string guitar (12), bass guitar (12)
• "Fast" Eddie Hoh – drums (15)
• Jeff Jones – guitars (15)
• Billy London – pedal steel (15)
• Ollie Mitchell – piccolo trumpet (15)

Technical

• Adam Schlesinger – producer (1–4, 6–10, 12–13), mixing (1–4, 6–10, 12–13), engineer
• Chip Douglas – vocal production (3, 9), producer (3, 9, 15), vocal arrangement (14), brass arrangement (15)
• Daphne Chen – string arrangement (1, 9)
• Peter Tork – additional production (12), arranger (12)
• James Lee Stanley – additional production (12), arranger (12)
• Christian Nesmith – producer (5), mixing (5), vocal arrangement (5), engineer
• Jonathan Nesmith – producer (11), mixing (11), vocal arrangement (11), engineer
• Pete Min – engineer
• Andrew Sandoval – engineer
• Dan Piscina – engineer
• Andrew Schwartz – engineer
• Judy Elliot-Brown – engineer
• Ryan Smith – mastering
• John Hughes – executive producer
• Kris Perera – product manager
• Jonathan Lane – art direction, design
• Michael Allred – cover art

Charts

Chart (2018)	Peak position
US Billboard Top Current Album Sales	60^[7]
US Billboard Holiday Album	3^[8]

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Monkees To Release Christmas Party, Their First Ever Holiday Album . monkees.com . 2018-09-20 . 2018-09-24.
2. Web site: Micky Dolenz Breaks Down the Monkees' New Christmas Album . rollingstone.com . 2018-10-10 . 2018-10-12.
3. Web site: Zilch #124 Monkees Christmas Party News . zilchmonkeescast.blogspot.com . 2018-09-20 . 2018-10-12.
4. Web site: MIKE ALLRED Talks New MONKEES Album Project . 13thdimension.com . 2018-09-24.
5. Web site: Willman . Chris . Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Spotify: 15 New Holiday Albums Reviewed, From John Legend to William Shatner . . 2018-12-20.
6. Christmas Party . The Monkees . The Monkees . CD liner notes . 2018 . . Los Angeles, California . R2 574825.
7. Web site: Chart History: The Monkees - Top Current Album Sales.
8. Web site: The Monkees.