The Monkees - Good Times! (Rhino Reserve)

Fifty years after they first hit the airwaves, the Monkees made Good Times!, a 2016 album that sounds like pure sunshine, and this Rhino Reserve pressing gives it a well-earned return to vinyl.

Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith teamed up with producer Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, who rounded up a remarkable cast of songwriters raised on the band's records. The result honours the group's past without feeling stuck in it, built partly from unfinished recordings dating back to the 1960s and partly from new songs tailored to the trio's voices.

The title track is a time-travelling marvel, pairing Dolenz with a vintage Harry Nilsson vocal on a song Nilsson wrote for the band decades earlier. "You Bring the Summer," penned by Andy Partridge of XTC, bursts with jangly psychedelic joy, while Rivers Cuomo's "She Makes Me Laugh" is bubblegum bliss of the highest order. Ben Gibbard's "Me & Magdalena" slows things into a gorgeous, wistful harmony showcase.

Even the late Davy Jones gets a moment, his voice preserved on a long-shelved recording that slots right in.

It's a warm, generous record, and proof that a great pop band never really goes out of style, especially with friends this talented in its corner.