UK Chronicle review of "This Time Around" - June 1, 2000
By Tom P. Howley
This Time around, the first studio release from Hanson since their 1997 debut and follow-up 'Middle of Nowhere' and 'Snowed In' sees a phatter Hanson. The hooks are catchier and more complex, the voices are deeper and more soulful and the lyrics are deeper and more melanchony. One hour of 13 rock 'n' roll, r 'n' b, pop, soul croons that'll make you want to dance, smile, cry and run down the street shouting 'I love you' and 'I want to kill you' to everyone. A real emotional rollercoaster but as far as music goes, this is a rock-solid timeless masterpiece.
Tracks:
1) You Never Know 5/5
High points: The backing vocals on the line 'Consider well the kind of stream where you've been fishing' and the lead vocals throughout.
Low Points: Very hard to find any. The scratching might irritate some people.
2) If Only 4/5
High Points: The harmonica solo, the catchy chorus
Low Points: The scratching after the chorus.
3) This Time Around 5/5
High Points: The mixed-tempo feel of the song and the line 'Do you know why I'd die?'-feel your heart hit your skull.
Low Points: I listened over and over but honestly couldn't find any.
4)Runaway Run 5/5
High Points: Just about the whole up-tempo song, but probably the lyrics in the middle eight: 'I can feel every thought that you're thinking.' You can feel your heart stopping at the lyrics and the emotion in the voice.
Low Points: Once again, hard to find any.
5)Save Me 4/5
High Points: The high vocals (listen and you'll know what I mean)
Low Points: Some of the lyrics are a bit cheesy.
6)Dying To Be Alive 4/5
High Points: The very end where they sing along to a piano. Classic.
Low Points: The 'na na na' bit. They couldn't think of any words, I suppose.
7)Can't Stop 5/5
High Points: The guitar intro, the drum solo after the middle eight, the high notes, the catchy chorus. Probably the best track on the album.
Low points: None whatsoever.
8) I Wish That I Was There 4/5
High Points: The second time the lead singer sings 'And you make me feel' (sung over the chorus). Brilliant.
Low Points: Lyrics a bit cheesy at times.
9)Love Song: 4/5
High Points: The amazing introduction and so-beautifuly-sung lyrics.
Low Points: Drags on a bit at the end.
10)Sure About It: 5/5
High Points: The soul in the singers (Taylor) voice in the first verse. Just listen to him sing 'She's a picture of a heart of gold.'
Low points: The words to the chorus are hard to keep up with.
11)Hand in hand: 4/5
High Points: Definitley the guitar solo. Classic, maybe the best 7 seconds of guitar on the album.
Low Points: The second verse doesn't quite fit.
12) In the City 5/5
High Points: The 'I'm gonna ask you once again' part and the Steven Tyler screaming at the end.
Low Points: None. The scratching may annoy some people but I found it perfect.
13) Song to sing 5/5
High Points: The excellent lyrics and harmonies and Taylor's 'oh oh oh' bit after the chrous first and last time. His voice will melt your heart.
Low Points: If you're wearing mascara, it'll run.
Overall album: 5/5-destined to win all the awards worth winning.
Billboard review of "If Only" - Billboard Magazine - June 1, 2000
The teen trio's stellar re-entry into the pop fray, "This time Around," may not have reached "MMMBop"-like chart heights, but it effectively broke new ground for the maturing pop act--and it proved that the Hanson brothers are as musically skillful as they're videogenic. With that task complete, the road should be clear for this rousing new single to easily sail up The Billboard Hot 100. Already a hit in the U.K. and Europe, "If Only" rocks with notable authority. But it also has enough pop bounce to keep the kiddies shrieking with glee. Taylor Hanson's brisk lead vocal is nicely complemented by brothers Zack and Ike's smooth harmonies, as well as an arrangement riddled with nimble turntable scratches and a fluid harmonica solo by guest John Popper. Way hipper and more substantial than almost anything else offered by current teen-level acts, this single deserves--make that *demands*--immediate top 40 programmer approval.
Hanson Heads To TV For "This Time Around" - MTV.com - May 8, 2000
Hanson is preparing for this week's release of "This Time Around," the Tulsa, Oklahoma trio's long-awaited studio follow-up to its 1997 debut, "Middle Of Nowhere," and will celebrate the new album with a series of TV and in-store appearances. On May 8, Hanson will tape a performance for broadcast later that night CBS' "The Late Show With David Letterman," while on May 9, Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson will pay a visit to "The Rosie O'Donnell Show." After hitting the talk show circuit, Hanson plans to head over to MTV's Times Square studios to hang out with Carson Daly on "TRL" on Wednesday, May 10. Hanson will then wrap up its New York City promotional run with an in-store signing at the Coconuts Record Store on 6th Avenue and 51st Street in Manhattan. Hanson is still hammering out details for an extended tour in support of "This Time Around," and the trio has already scheduled dates at several radio festivals over the next two months, including gigs in Council Bluffs, Iowa on May 20, Boston on June 3, and Providence, Rhode Island on June 4. Hanson's "This Time Around" is due out on May 9.
-- David Basham
Hanson Leaves Boy-Bands In The Dust - Atlanta Journal Constitution - May 8, 2000
Don't call them a boy band. The only thing Hanson has in common with the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC & their ilk is frequent appearences in Tiger Beat magazine. Of course, Hanson didn't ask to be idolized by teenage girls, & the trio's major-label debut album, "Middle Of Nowhere," sounded nothing like the music of contemporary boy bands, either. This follow up finds them moving even further from boy- band territory. The young Oklahoma-born siblings took three years to follow up the success of "Middle Of Nowhere" and it's hit single, "MMMBOP." A lot happens in a teenager's life in three years. Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson and their fans have changed since 1997, and you have to wonder whether they've grown together or apart. "This Time Around," which hits stores today, makes it clear that hanson has grown in the direction of 1970s FM-radio rock. Album opener "You Never Know" and first single "This Time Around" wouldn't have sounded out of place between Stories' "Brother Louie" & Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round in Circles" on the radio in 1973. Make no mistake, though, they would have been just as massive as those 2 were. Hooks are timeless, 7 Hanson fills these songs with more than you'll find in your average bait shop. Aside from the catchy toons, Hanson's most obvious claim to greatness is in the throat of Taylor Hanson. he has a classic rock 'n' roll voice. He growls, sneers & croons with the confidence of someone beyond his 17 years. A distinctive vocalist, no chorergraphy, instraments played by the people pictured on the cover, and no one trying to prove their street cred. Doesn't sound much like a boy-band, does it? "This Time Around" Grade= B+
Hanging with the Hanson brothers - The Montreal Gazette - May 26, 2000
of The Montreal Gazette
Hanging out with Isaac, Taylor and Zachary Hanson is a revelation. In spite of their squeaky-clean image, the three brothers with the bubble-gum reputation show more grit than giddiness on their new CD, This Time Around. The Hansons - better known as Hanson - were in Montreal yesterday to promote This Time Around, which isn't at all like their debut, Middle of Nowhere. That album, which came out two years ago, sold 8 million CDs on the strength of the single MMMbop. MMMbop helped the trio build a huge following among a young, largely female demographic and got them lumped in with other good-looking, all-male boy bands like NSync and the Backstreet Boys. All three are visibly uncomfortable with the label, though. "Technically, we are boys. We are a band," Isaac, 19, told reporters yesterday before an appearance at MusiquePlus. "In truth, we're really just a band. ... The reason we get put in the boy-band category is because we have a lot of young fans. There is definitely a certain bias because we are young." "We're not butt ugly," Zac, 15, added. "The point is, people focus on the hair, the girlfriends, all this stupid stuff, and it's not something we care about. Ask us about writing songs. Ask us about writing music." That's their trump card. Apart from being wry, media savvy and confident, they're talented songwriters. They wrote all the material on This Time Around, and invited hot blues guitarist Jonny Lang and harmonica player John Popper to play along. The result is a heavier, more mature sound, with material that's more keyboard-driven than on their first album. "I think the hardest thing is getting over yourself and making sure you like what you're doing even if no one else does," Isaac said. "We're always striving to write better songs, to incorporate new things, getting different people to come in so we can stretch." Their voices have matured, and some critics have compared 18-year-old Taylor's gravelly vocals to those of a youthful Joe Cocker. Tracks including Runaway Run, Dying to Be Alive and If Only are impressive evidence of their growing prowess. However, In the City, for example, strains credibility when the lyrics about infidelity come from the mouth of a youngster who claims he doesn't even have a girlfriend. Asked about the song, Taylor is defensive. "I was singing about infidelity when I was 7," he said. "People make the big mistake that because you are young they think you can't express feelings or that you can't describe them with a straight face. I dunno, we've been writing about that kind of stuff since we were maybe 5." They don't appear to be bothered by what the critics say. And they recognize that they are going to lose some fans and gain others as they change. "First of all, it's not about the money, period. It really isn't," Taylor said. "It's really great to get respect, but at the same time, good or bad, you can't let other people determine who you are. You have to know who you are and where you're going." The brothers say that while they might occasionally go off in individual directions, their main focus will always be Hanson. "The music is going to continue to change," Taylor said. "The next record is going to be different, and the record after that is going to be different. Musically, I hope we'll still be able to be talking to reporters 40 years from now." - The new CD This Time Around is now available in stores.
Review of "This Time Around" - The Onion - May 26, 2000
By Keith Phipps
The appearance of Hanson in 1997 felt almost inevitable: The flannel revolution of the early '90s was fading fast, thanks in no small part to an endless string of joyless carbon copies. The pop charts abhor a vacuum of fun anyway, and who better to provide it than a well-scrubbed Midwestern brother act, a throwback to bubblegum music with enough pop savvy to throw in scratching for that contemporary edge? After "MMMBop," Hanson could have disappeared, but the group had the best safeguard against one-hit wonderdom: talent. Its album Middle Of Nowhere went deep, filled with catchy songs that the brothers not only performed like consummate pros, but also (mostly) wrote. As the intervening years have shown, anyone who complained about Hanson then did so only because they didn't realize how good they had it. Three years later, bubblegum isn't a novelty anymore; it's the norm, the field dominated not by the Hansons of the world but by far less talented creatures. Can Hanson reclaim the Top 40 throne from the pretenders it helped create? If the new This Time Around, the group's first album since Nowhere (not counting a rarities collection, a live disc, a Christmas album, and other assorted cash-ins), can't do it, nothing can. With Hanson not only aging gracefully but actually maturing, This Time Around finds the songs, this time written entirely by the group, sounding even more assured, and lead vocalist Taylor Hanson easing into an adolescent voice reminiscent of Michael Jackson's. There are a good half-dozen potential hits here--most notably "If Only," "You Never Know," "Runaway Run," and the title track--and nothing to be ashamed of among the rest. Aside from a few rougher edges, relatively speaking, and the occasional harmonica part courtesy of John Popper, the sound hasn't changed much, but why should it? Frothy and eager-to-please as it might be, Hanson needs to catch up to no one.
Article from Spin.com - May 15, 2000
By Max Finneran
One of the key ingredients of the postmodern "always-already" repetition complex is a rash (and acutely American) hatred of nostalgia and memory. James Dean never really died because, in truth, he was never really alive. And Britney Spears will always be dependable, since she is, after all, a computer program. Yet every now and then there's a slip: Superman falls off the horse and, like deja vu in The Matrix, "reality" gets a program glitch. But then, of course, computer simulations can make Reeve walk again for a television commercial and -- bang! -- the crippled superhero is more powerful then he's ever been.
Simulations of the pop variety defy not only temporal progression but also continually reinstate the American commodity-economy's assurance of consistency: the always will-be/already has-been of this pre-pubescent nation. Such are the thoughts provoked as one is swept away by the new Hanson album, aptly titled This Time Around. As these buxom young brothers (now in their 40s, according to inside sources) would have us believe, this time around it's a whole new ball game. Increased age and the global domination of cute teens who can't play their own instruments -- let alone anyone else's -- have opened up new musical doorways to these hot'n'bothered heartthrobs since we last heard from them on 1997's Middle Of Nowhere.
Drawing a line in Backstreet's sand, on This Time Around the Hanson teens have abandoned Dust Brothers-embossed pop for some fire-hot rock'n'roll. Backed up by an almighty radio-hit producing collective (Stephen Lironi, Tom Lord-Alge, etc.), the not-so new kids on the block have crafted a spotless album, so expertly paced and digitally enhanced it shines like a virtual diamond.
Musically the album is Sum well, we all know what it is. Making a perfectly timed return to Carson Daly's teenybopper wonderland, the Hanson boys sing with more sultry seduction (one of them sounds disturbingly like Steven Tyler) and senior class gusto then we ever heard back in the squeaking "MMMBop" days. Freed from the weight of cultural irony (thanks to a new millennium and a super-duper economy), Hanson's self-written tunes tirelessly recycle every chord combination in the books, recontextualizing them with a bit of fresh A.I. sampling. Out of the 13 songs on the album, "Run Runaway" triumphs as dusty-road radio hit, conjuring up thousands of recycled (and remembered?) music video images. And the crunching opener, "You Never Know," packs an edgier punch, challenging assumptions 'cause, hey, you never know what's hiding out in those tight jeans or behind those bleached blond smiles. Throughout, the Hanson brothers (Taylor, the cute one, Zac, the young one, and Isaac, the, um, one that finally cut his hair) trade-off on vocals and try and trick us into thinking they're actually alive. But we know better.
The fact is, this album is impossible to critique, because it is perfect. Like a Hollywood soundtrack that will make your pre-programmed, culturally imprisoned synapses twitch, shiver and weep despite your hatred of Julia Roberts, Hanson's new album sounds great, reaches for the heart and comes back with its hands bloody every time. So Sum three cheers to that. But don't try and pretend This Time Around is different from any other time. Sure, the kids give it their all, but most of it still sounds like warmed over Billy Joel outtakes. And when Taylor (?) serenades the "I Want it That Way" masses with the drippy "Save Me" ("looovviinnnggg yoouuu. . . ." ), the record becomes so creepy, you want to escape to the woods. But, of course, the tune has always-already been played everywhere, topping the charts beyond the final frontier. Such is the life we lead in America 2K (brought to you by Microsoft and American Express), where Supermen can walk again and the Hanson brothers can knock them off their feet."
Pushing Beyond Kiddie-Pop - INQUIRER MUSIC CRITIC
By Tom Moon
Those who groaned when pop became teentown have been waiting to have a week like this: Two of music's top-selling brands, Hanson and Britney Spears, are releasing the follow-ups to their multi-platinum debuts. Hanson's This Time Around (Island/DefJam ***) came out last week, and Spears' Oops! . . . I Did It Again (Jive **) arrives Tuesday. It's time to test the staying power of the most popular girl in school, the perfectly tanned queen of R&B-tinged flirt-pop, whose . . . Baby One More Time has sold more than nine million copies since January 1999. Similarly, it's the chance to measure the gumption of the trio of blond Midwestern brothers whose exuberant pop-rock helped kick-start the whole crazy trend back in 1997.
The coming chart showdown is no celebrity death match between kiddie-pop opportunists. Having survived grueling tours and inflammatory press, these vets earned the right to make the all-important second album, and face the same mission: to reconnect with the fickle youth audience while laying groundwork for less-gimmicky adult careers. It's a new twist on the old problem of growing up in public. Having arrived on the scene as sensations, Spears, 18, and the Hansons - Isaac, 19, Taylor, 17, and Zac, 14 - recognize they can't expect the awed "look at those kids!" treatment forever. Like all teens, they're striving to establish their identities. But at the same time, they're charged with developing bankable musical personalities - figuring out what makes them different from, say, the gazillion other acts vying for face time on MTV.
Their new works take sharply contrasting approaches to the challenge of evolving beyond bubblegum savant status. Spears doesn't want to lose any of her young female audience. She offers easily digestible nuggets that even baby sister can hum, and has patterned her Oops! songs after popular cuts on her previous effort. Meanwhile, Hanson - whose young-girl fans were attracted more by the group's looks than by any bended-knee, Backstreet Boys-style lyrics - has turned into a rock repertory company. Rather than serve variations on the theme of MMMBop, the trio offers more aggressively rhythmic (but no less sunny) pop, much of it influenced by classic '60s soul.
Every artist following up a big success has to wrestle with the complex expectations of its audience, but Spears and the Hansons face added pressure. On the cusp of adulthood, they must negotiate a balance between the innocent and the savvy, decide what degree of raciness is acceptable, how far to push. Is it more astute to super-serve the young end of their demographic with sweetness and fluff, or to present a daring, cutting-edge persona for the older kids to grow into? In the elaborate Kabuki ritual that is youth marketing, one false move and even the most popular performer risks appearing out of step. Spears is evidently terrified of this. In her music, current video and publicity shots, her strategy is to flaunt her conspicuously grown-up body while keeping the songs kiddie wholesome. Vamping through material that mirrors previous singles or that echoes the hits of others, she aims for the lightweight end of contemporary R&B (Brandy's producer, Rodney Jerkins, supplies one track), and apparently sees herself as a Mariah Jr. - an artist whose celebrityhood can sell even the most pale imitations. There's nothing accidental about Oops! From its opening lockstep dance pulse, which might have been ordered up by Spears' choreographer, through "Dear Diary," a closing confessional that will make even the most Britney-beguiled 12-year-old wince, it's a clean, competent affair. Its production is tart enough to entice radio listeners, but, heaven forbid, never radical. Spears stamps her foot when she doesn't get what she wants, proclaims undying love as if she knows what that is, and warns an old boyfriend he'd better think twice about coming around. Subtlety, not a virtue in teen pop, is nowhere in evidence. In Spears' world, love is an absolute, all good or all bad, with only the grandest gesture worthy of discussion. (The title single finds a paramour diving to the briny depths to retrieve the sapphire the old lady in Titanic tossed back.)
Hanson also traffics in cliches, but at least it does something with them. On "Save Me," one of the few syrupy ballads on This Time Around, the chorus begins with an utterly ordinary plea - "Won't you save me?" - but in the very next breath injects a bit of doubt with the apprehensive phrase "if saving's what I need." It's a small thing, just the tiniest hint of a more mature perspective, yet it's enough to energize what would otherwise be unexpurgated sap. That's the key to Hanson: The ideas aren't revolutionary, but they're communicated with such earnestness and surefooted musicianship that even the trite becomes believable, if not riveting. Hanson's best weapon remains its songwriting. Whether marveling at fate (the taut, vaguely Latin romp "You Never Know") or expressing a desire for change ("Runaway Run," "If Only"), the group builds exceptional pop from mundane elements: straightforward verses, hooks that sound inevitable but not obvious, sweetly affirming choirs (one is led by Rose Stone, of Sly and the Family Stone fame), and rhythms with their origins in Memphis soul. On its last tour, Hanson pulled off surprisingly vivid covers of the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin' " and other classic-rock hits. It's clear the brothers' love of that music helped shape This Time: Not only are many of its backbeats derived from that golden era, but this young rhythm section somehow picked up the way the music was played back then. Throughout the project, the trio digs deep into the groove, executing a percussive, downright precocious blend of fire-breathing intensity and disciplined restraint that makes even weaker material percolate.
Spears visits the land of classic rock, too - with disastrous results. Whoever approved her cover of the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" should be sentenced to a summer scraping gum off the chairs at Nickelodeon's All That Music & More tour. Not only does she stumble through the vocal, but the track actually reduces Keith Richards' signature guitar motif to a blip of synthesized pablum. Where Hanson effortlessly assimilates ideas from genres not on its home page, Spears' every move seems forced, as if she's constantly working the room, paying more attention to the audience than to the art. That calculation sinks "Satisfaction" and makes even the occasional clever songs on her album sound like repetitive chores. Though her clothes say that she's shed the trappings of teendom, when Spears opens her mouth and faces the larger pop audience, oops, she's still a kid, not quite sure how to grow up.
Wango Tango Plays It Hit-Heavy Safe - The Times - May 15, 2000
Top 40 groups, not hard-edged rockers, rule with young fans at KIIS-FM concert
By Steve Hochman
In 1967, Jimi Hendrix opened for the Monkees at the Hollywood Bowl--and got booed.
It's the kind of thing that came with the territory of Top 40 pop back then, when seemingly disparate acts were lumped together in the same format. Saturday at Dodger Stadium, in the KIIS-FM (102.7) annual Wango Tango concert, rocker Lenny Kravitz played before Latin-pop sensation Enrique Iglesias and urban star Sisqo (the "Thong Song" guy) on a show that also included teenqueen Jessica Simpson, pop's Marc Anthony and pop-rockers Sugar Ray and the Goo Goo Dolls--and half the audience sat on its hands for most of Kravitz's set. Only when the five young men of current supreme teen rulers 'N Sync (serving as show hosts, but not otherwise performing) joined him to sing along on his 1999 hit "Fly" did the place come alive.
Not much has changed. OK, Kravitz is not the bold innovator Hendrix (an obvious role model) was. And when Hendrix opened for the Monkees, he was pretty much unknown in the U.S., whereas Kravitz is an MTV regular with a career spanning nearly 15 years--about the median age of the female-heavy audience Saturday. Kravitz, as well, could easily have gotten the 60,000-plus people at the stadium all rocking right off the bat if he'd simply played "Fly" and his version of "American Woman"--the two songs that would be familiar to KIIS listeners--to start off. Instead, he led his band through three stretched-out, hard-edged funk jams on songs totally unknown to the core KIIS audience and the only slightly more known anthem "Let Love Rule" before encoring with the two hits and bringing out 'N Sync. And that, despite the relatively tepid response, may illustrate why Kravitz has had a long, strong career track--and why many of the others on the bill may not achieve that.
Act after act Saturday pandered to the crowd, by and large playing only the hits, familiar ear candy in their short sets. Kravitz dared to give the fans something different and more challenging--and if he only reached half of them, well, half of 60,000 still isn't bad for a day's work. But that notion gets lost in an era when 'N Sync can sell nearly 2.5 million albums in one week. The fact is that pandering may lead to big cheers and big sales, but it also comes at the expense of substance and, ultimately, longevity--something even the most rabid fans of these acts not only accept, but expect.
That's fine by KIIS management. The station, revenue-wise the top radio outlet in the nation, is all about what's hot right now, and when something else is hot tomorrow, it will be about that. It's business as usual for Top 40, as it has been for decades. The problem at this "right now" juncture is that nearly all the acts seem to be just a series of replaceable parts. That left this year's Wango Tango a little hollow. Last year, there was some sense of excitement, particularly with the "Wild Wild West" razzle-dazzle of Will Smith, a bona fide multimedia superstar, and the equally glitzy arrival of Ricky Martin. This year, there was no one of Smith's dominant stature, and Iglesias seemed just this year's Martin (minus the showmanship), while Simpson filled the slot last year occupied by then-ascending Britney Spears. Sisqo, in the closing slot, made a big splash with his and his crew's intricate, well-executed choreography, but only performed two songs. Iglesias offered little more than sex appeal, saddled by an accompanying sense of arrogance. Anthony was more engaging with an unforced, personable manner--even if his music too relies on both Latin music and pop cliches. Simpson won kudos for handling technical glitches with grace but lost points for the blatant sexual tease of her dancing and outfit (skin-tight silver reflective pants made her look like an anorexic disco ball).
Ironically, in this pop age, it was the rockers that made the best statements, with Kravitz's emphasis of his art over his commerce, and Sugar Ray singer Mark McGrath's continued warmth and obvious appreciation for the band's success, which pumped up the band's breezy, sunny-day songs.
Also scoring was Hanson, making a "surprise" appearance following the disposable-by-design dance-pop of Italian trio Eiffel 65. The Hanson brothers, like Kravitz, are trying to transcend pop transience and establish some rock credibility, and the several new songs they played, before ending with their bubbly breakthrough teeny-bopper hit "MmmBop," made a good case for their progress and growth.
Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times
Hanson is MmmBack and MmmBetter 'This Time Around' - The Boston Globe - May 9, 2000
by Sarah Rodman
Hanson "This Time Around" (Island/Def Jam) 3.5 stars out of 4
If you listened to the new Hanson album, without knowing it was them, there's a good chance you might think you were hearing a catchy new roots-rock group along the lines of the Black Crowes.
The trio of teenagers from Tulsa, Okla., who "MmmBop"-ed their way into 8 million heads in 1997 have filled their second album with rousing, sophisticated rockers. "This time Around" shows that the Hansons' hearts lie in the classic rock world of the Rolling Stones, Santana and the Band and not the teen-pop category into which they've been lumped with fellow heartthrobs 'N Sync and Backstreet Boys.
The album showcases the three musicians - guitarist Ike, 19, keyboardist-lead singer Taylor, 17, and drummer Zac, 14 - coming into their own as songwriters. The brothers wrote all 13 songs on the album, and as their voices have deepened so have their concerns. "This Time Around" covers romantic betrayal, the principles of fighting for a belief and the giddy confusion of love in clever and musically enticing ways.
The album opens with the percussive-heavy "You Never Know," a chugging pop rocker that could be a spiritual relative to tunes from Santana's "Supernatural" with its funky smattering of cowbells, congas, cymbals and turntable scratches.
Solemn piano, impassioned and bluesy vocals and heady lyrics about war and freedom make the title track an uplifting, Southern-inflected number that wouldn't sound out of place on a contemporary Joe Cocker album. A comrade in blond locks, 19-year-old guitar phenom Jonny Lang lends a sizzling lead guitar here and on two other tracks.
Blues Traveler John Popper lends a head-spinning harmonica line to the Stonesy rocker "In the City." At their age, it's understandable that the Hanson brothers occasionally get bogged down in certain romantic cliches and a teenage tendency for melodrama. But the ballads are uniformly well-served by Taylor's newly minted and dreamy falsetto and lush familial harmonies.
Deep with potential hit singles, Hanson should be able to beat the sophomore sales slump with "This Time Around" - and the group deserves it. You'd have to go back to the Jackson 5 to find a group so youthful that makes music so sturdy that it can be enjoyed by all ages. And the members of the Jackson 5 didn't write their own material. With no innuendo, bump and grind or bloodless mechanized instrumentation, parents can enthusiastically encourage their young kids to listen and not be embarrassed to thoroughly enjoy themselves as well.
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