Songs You Need To Hear Now #31
The Monkees' Mickey Dolenz covering R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People" is a mess on paper. It totally works and is one of this week's playlist highlights.
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Here is some great new music I’ve been listening to this week. Thanks to everyone who is saving the playlist! Please be sure to follow and “like” for all of the latest updates 🙏
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It’s been about a year and a half since we checked in with one of my favorite bands, the genre-defying Aussies known as Mildlife. Live from South Channel Island is one of the most incredible concert vids you’ll ever see, as they play songs from Phases and one of my 2020 AOTYs in Automatic on a serene atoll in Melbourne’s harbor.
Now we’ve got a new ten-minute single that is sure to please any prog fans and is hopefully the precursor to a recent album announcement. Here’s “Return To Centaurus”:
Having Mickey Dolenz on one of my new music playlists was not on my bingo card, but his “Shiny Happy People” cover is much better than you’d expect. I enjoy The Monkees for what they were, but as someone who considers R.E.M. to be their favorite band, “Shiny Happy People” is one that I’ve always found grating, especially when it was on the radio non-stop back in the early to mid-nineties. I also love the B-52’s, but if we’re going with collaborations between these two Athens, Georgia legends, I’ve always been Team “Near Wild Heaven.”
Anyway, Dolenz removes the saccharine backbone from R.E.M.’s version and surprisingly mixes it more into something off of Pet Sounds if it was recorded by Brian Wilson’s touring band he’s had for the past few decades. I generally avoid covers, especially for this playlist, but give this baby a listen. It’s irresistible:
I want to know what you’re listening to this week! Let me know in the comments.
These songs are also included in the ever-popular Good Ass Songs 2023 playlist. At over three hundred songs and counting, it’s the best way to catch up on another excellent year of music!
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