Hanson backs the hype with high-grade bluesy pop - The Boston Globe - May 9, 2000
By Joan Anderman

Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson are soaking up rays in the Bahamas, and who can really blame them. It's two weeks until the release of Hanson's "This Time Around," the encore to 1997's "Middle of Nowhere" if you don't count the quickie demos-and-outtakes follow-up, a requisite Christmas collection, and a grossly premature live album. "Middle of Nowhere" spawned an effervescent little anthem called "MMMBop" that stuck like bubblegum to the soul of underage America, and in the bargain ignited a teen-pop firestorm that still rages.

It's a tall order under any circumstances to put out a sophomore effort that rivals a blockbuster debut. To complicate matters, all the little girls whose bedroom walls were plastered with Hanson posters and tattered covers of Tiger Beat, whose bookshelves were filled with titles like "Zac Attack!" and "Totally Taylor!," have meanwhile cleared space for the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, 98 Degrees, Britney, Christina, and the like. Competition is, to say the least, fierce, and the brothers know it. Which is why they are working the press - polite and well-rehearsed as ever - while they work on their tans.

But Hanson also knows something else, and it's keeping them upbeat and down-to-earth as they contemplate reentry into the choked realm of teen sensations. Lead singer Taylor - now 17, 6 feet tall, and still pretty enough to be called `Miss' by waitresses worldwide - sums it up nicely on the phone from his hotel: "We're compared to a lot of people because of our age and our fans' age. But musically, we're not on the same wavelength. We're completely different."

It would be impossible to overstate just how different this band, and this album (on Island/Def Jam, in stores today), is from the reams of pre-fab boy bands and airbrushed mouthpieces that dominate the genre. Put it this way: while the Backstreet Boys were attending urban-choreography class, the brothers Hanson were soaking up their mother's Time-Life compilation of '50s music. While members of 'N Sync were auditioning for "The Mickey Mouse Club Show" in Orlando, Ike, Tay, and Zac were back home in Tulsa aping the Motown greats. And it shows. "This Time Around" is a soulful pop-rock collection with a good bit of bite, not a little sophistication, and - here's what really sets them apart - genuine musicianship.

"We really like the Black Crowes," says 14-year-old drummer Zac, who pounds the skins with feel and power far beyond his years and recites favorite artists - Lenny Kravitz, Lauryn Hill, Sheryl Crow - like an impressive resume. "When the last record came out we were a little poppier than what was there. Grunge was booming. This record is a little harder than what's happening now. It's nice to come out with something unexpected."

The band has become not only a credible rock unit, but a bona fide songwriting team; the trio penned every track on the album. And the beauty is that Hanson has matured without sacrificing the buoyant harmonies and catchy hooks that made them such a semi-guilty pleasure in the first place. Songs like "This Time Around" (the first single) and "If Only" shoot straight from the classic-rock-radio hip, drenched in Hammond B-3 organ, cowbells, congas, wailing electric guitars, and a gospel choir, led by Rose Stone (from Sly and the Family Stone). Stephen Lironi (Black Grape) produced, but only after an aborted start with Ric Ocasek that still hasn't been fully explained. "Ric is amazing," says Zac, offering only that "the sound just wasn't what we were going for." Ocasek's influence is audible, however, especially in the opening guitar chords of "Runaway Run," which are lifted straight from the Cars' "My Best Friend's Girl."

Other Hanson boosters are equally notable: Blues Traveler's John Popper asked if he could play harmonica on a pair of tracks, Beck cohort DJ Swamp scratches, and guitar whiz Johnny Lang appears on a trio of songs. And while this time out Zac and Isaac share more of the lead vocal duties, Taylor is the indisputable star. Three years ago, he was as nimble and precocious a boy-diva as young Michael Jackson, and he's developing right on track. His voice has indeed gone through the dreaded change. "Fortunately," Taylor says, "everyone's voice has sort of dropped. For old songs, we just lower the key. For new songs, we just write them as we go. It's exciting to be able to have a new sound." True enough, even though nothing on the new album is quite as unforgettably exuberant as the bright and shiny "MMMBop." But Taylor has accommodated the advancing years graciously, blossoming into a bluesy, soulful rock singer.

One has to wonder, though, if Hanson's fan base, with its current, seemingly insatiable appetite for slick dance-pop, will readily embrace the band's new seasoned sound. Isaac - the sage and elder statesman at 19, with newly shorn hair as befits his near-adult station - is confident that their fans have grown up with them. "I think a large part of our fan base is waiting to be activated again. And we're hoping to expand our audience. The songwriting has evolved, and because of the change in the music other people might be willing to take another look at us."

Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.

Hanson Finding Its Groove - The Orange County Register - May 5, 2000
By Ben Wener

They keep making albums like this one and we naysayers aren't going to have any choice but to embrace them.

Understand, Hanson's "This Time Around" (in stores Tuesday), the long-awaited proper follow-up from the Oklahoma trio of teen-age brothers who got the world "MMMBop"-ing three years ago, is far from the greatest traditionalist rock of today. The Black Crowes can sleep easy. But they'd better take note. For as wet behind the ears as the Hansons still are - mushy love thoughts like "when you're not here I wish I was there" are about as lyrically deep as they get - they nonetheless show immense improvement throughout these 13 hard-to-resist tunes.

The album is loaded with surprises, starting with the band's unexpected ability to fuse its novelty start to something far grander. The biggest revelation among a slew of them, however, is the maturation of middle child Taylor, clearly the blues-rock fanatic in the family (just check older bro Isaac's two saccharine ballads) and likely the one who brought guitar whiz Jonny Lang into the studio for requisite tasty licks. Tay's best spotlights are fantastic, beautifully blending the indefatigable optimism at the group's core with a gospel-tinged Southern stomp a la the Crowes. Think "Remedy" in miniature without the drugs.

That could just be the trick for these guys: the lack of drugs. Could it be that they're the rare exception to the rule? That their happy upbringing, that precious freedom to explore their creative whims as children, has led them to an ideal appreciation of near-killer rock riffs combined with an unerring sense of what sells? And - gasp! - a potential voice for a generation (at least its sheltered share)? Is it possible they won't end up like three Leif Garretts, looking for a comeback between fixes?

Bet the house on it. With honey-drizzled Taylor at the helm (and with much credit due producer Stephen Lironi, who stepped in when Ric Ocasek hit a wall), they're becoming a top-notch outfit, capable of mixing "Smooth"-like Latin flourishes (on the excitable "You Never Know") as well as Steppenwolf-esque grooving (dig the politely gritty "In the City," which with its cowbell-clacking beat and John Popper harmonica solo would have been an FM staple had it come out in '68).

They still need to iron out a few more kinks - namely that everything needn't be an "MMMBop" rewrite, let alone one with twice as much scratching, and that their instincts for timeless rock are finer than their ability to ape complacent sounds (really, could they sound more like Seal on "Hand in Hand"?). But when you hear simple but heartfelt pieces like "A Song to Sing" and "Dying to Be Alive," brimming with questioning anger at life post-Columbine, post-Woodstock '99, you can't help but realize there's a major band here in the making.

Unsolicited advice, then: Do whatever Taylor says, Ike and Zac. He knows best. Follow his lead and you may eventually rank with the best in your class. Rebuke him and you'll end up being Huey Lewis and the News.

Grade: B

You might enjoy if you like: Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Shannon Curfman, the Black Crowes

This Time Around: Hanson
by Jackie Hillsdon

Wahey! Just what we've been crying out for../ another Hanson album! But wait, what's happened? Have the cutesy trio of flaxen-haired cherubs gone and grown up? Certainly their music has, there's a fair bit more rawk'n'rawl guitarin' and big organ work going on now.

Nevertheless, "This Time Around" is no radical departure, though it's lacking any potential single material as poppy as Mmmbop. Perhaps that's a blessing in disguise really. What we have instead has an odd, aging-rocker-from-Hair feel to it, perhaps attributable to the sqeamishly mature lyrics ("And I see you hand in hand with another man/ And I don't know what you see in him or why you let us go..."), the wheezing Seventies Hammond organ and the "soulful" wailings of Rose Stone (of Sly And The Family Stone) who's been whelled in to add the all-important collaborative cred.

Whatever you think of Hanson, this is undoubtedly a polished and professional album, slickly packaged and aggressively marketed by Hanson's biggest fan, Dad, who quit his job as a financial whiz to manage his talented brood.

So the boys are making heaps of cash doing what they're told to. Not very rawk'n'rawl methinks.

HEAR THE MUSIC: "You Never Know" Hanson - Detroit Free Press
By Brian McCollum

Harumph. Let's see the Backstreet Boys score John Popper for a guest appearance.

With his frenzied harmonica noodlings, the patriarchal Blues Traveler leader lends genuine heat to the second track on Hanson's new album -- a release regarded as the first endurance test of the teenybop attention span. The 16-year-old girls of 1997, after all, are today's college women, and that's an eon's worth of shifts in adolescent cool.

But the album is equally a test of Hanson itself. In a pop world increasingly crammed with teen acts, the precocious Oklahoma trio, who kick-started this whole trend, are battling to maintain their musical niche. Unlike their carelessly labeled "peers" -- Backstreet, 'N Sync and countless other faux-soul dance acts -- the Hanson brothers play rock 'n' roll.

Maybe it's just my own bias in the evergreen battle between the rockers and the preps, but I'll take Hanson's polished guitar pop over any white Boyz II Men wanna-be. Ike, Taylor and Zac apparently feel the same way: Sticking with the buoyant guitar sound that made them successful, Hanson and producer Stephen Lironi have patched together a 13-track collection of clean pop-rock.

"This Time Around," the official followup to 1997's debut album, does reveal signs of growth. The guitars are a little more distorted, the backbeats a little tougher, the lyrics a little less puppy-love. Other notable guest coups include blues guitarist Jonny Lang and ambidextrous DJ Swamp of Beck's band. There's nothing here that matches the sheer joy of "MMMBop," one of the most refreshing rays of sunshine to adorn pop radio in the '90s. Don't worry -- they've kept hold of the tightly wrapped harmonies, the sparkling pop melodies and the consistently upbeat arrangements.

But "This Time Around" is an album of measured steps: a Popper solo here ("If Only"), a dab of psychedelic noise there ("You Never Know"), a taste of gospel choir here ("Dying to Be Alive"). The album's title track -- which shot into the top 10 last week -- is the most daring song on tap: With its '70s R&B-rock vibe, the cut is anthemic, assertive, brash. It's also fabulously and inevitably catchy.

Whatever you think of Hanson's instrumental skills -- and, yes, despite apparent improvements, the attack still sounds tinny -- at least these guys are musicians. They might make musical milk, but at least they're not cheese. If only that much could be said about the groups that followed the trail they blazed.

They want it this way: TAYLOR, ZAC and ISAAC return as a hard-pop band. - Rolling Stone Magazine - May 25, 2000
by Rob Sheffield

3 1/2 stars.

These boys have a lot to answer for, don't they? Before Ike, Taylor and Zachary came along to melt every barrette in America, the radio was a very different place. Three years after "MMMBop," we've got boy bands up the yeah, masterminded by an Orlandinavian conspiracy of Dr. Evils who hide in their labs and ask the musical question, "Why settle for trillions when we could make....billions?"

Even at it's most automatic, the teen-pop La Machine can crank out great singles like the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" or LFO's "Summer Girls." But as sure as Michael J. Fox played Alex P. Keaton, none of these groups has the style, imagination or musicality of Hanson.

Like a blond three-headed hydra, Hanson loom over the competition, making all other teen idols sound like Gerber-sucking clowns. And they've already made more good albums than the Bay City Rollers, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, Tony DeFranco and the DeFranco family, Kristy and Jimmy McNichol combined! Fortunately, Hanson took their time making a follow-up to the debut 'Middle Of Nowhere,' and they didn't spend their vacations buying matching white suits, dance lessons, or wind machines. Instead, they matured into a bang-up rock & roll band, singing and playing the high-energy gems on 'This Time Around' with surprisingly adult confidence. Teen-pop acts usually fall on their faces when they try to get taken seriously; count yourself lucky if you can't remember the Jackson 5's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" or the Osmonds' "He Ain't Heavy...He's My Brother."

But Hanson's style of maturity is old-fashioned classic rock, which they attack with the zest of kids taking their first cruise down the strip in the old man's vintage Mustang. Without the Dust Brothers helping at the controls, 'This Time Around' has more rock and less funk than 'Middle of Nowhere', showing off Hanson's deepened harmonies, their expanding instrumental prowess and Taylor's increasingly sexy, bluesy growl. Hey, when it's time to change, it's time to change.

Nothing on 'This Time Around' has the super-sugar-crisp rush of "MMMBop," but singles like that roll around only once in any band's career; the Jackson 5 never topped "I Want You Back," either. The sound still includes more scratching and dance beats, but there is more emphasis on raging guitar hooks, making Hanson sound like the Black Crowes with a tighter sense of structure and a friskier set of hormones. The big ballad "This Time Around" has a Styx-style uplift, and the closing piano meditation, "A Song To Sing," has a genuinely grown-up air of melancholy. But the real chalupa-droppers here are the fast ones, especially "You Never Know," "If Only" and the amazing "Runaway Run," where Taylor hits soulful high notes that could make a grown woman blush. If I'm not mistaken, these kids have been spending quality time with 'Exile on Main Street' maybe even 'Sticky Fingers,' and you can hear a new Stones-y punch in their riffs - there's fever in the funk house now.

Some of 'This Time Around' doesn't work: Power Ballads like "Love Song" and "Save Me" are so professional they're downright bland, as if the boys feel obligated to keep their personalities in check. But truth be told, Hanson's duds are easier on the stomach than 'NSync's best efforts. Even the overstated message song "Sure About It" moves along a graceful hand-clap beat and crafty guitar hooks. The lyrics take an alarming turn towards social relevance - "cocaine load" rhymes with "trench coat." uh-oh - but Hanson manage to sound thoughtful, intelligent and compassionate when they struggle to make sense of the outside world, just as they did in "MMMBop." On 'This Time Around,' Hanson leave the rest of the teen pack eating their Oklahoma dust, pulling out so far ahead that the boy-band dudes won't be able to look each other in the eye anymore.

In the words of the Bay City Rollers, they rock it up, roll it up, do it all and have a ball. The Hanson brothers play exactly what they want to play, making records that they themselves might actually want to listen to, and it shows.

Boom Town Brats - The Guardian - April 28, 2000
By Caroline Sullivan

A trawl through the many Hanson websites produces some remarkably vituperative reading that suggests that the teenage Tulsa brothers rub a lot of people up the wrong way. The most entertaining is the Hanson Sucks message board, where attacks on the group's white-bread cuteness became so heated at one stage that 19-year-old Isaac Hanson wittily retorted, "We do not suck."

Quite right, kid. Hanson don't suck. They may have the bad luck to look like a boy band - all blond hair and soulful gazes - but there's a good bit more depth there than in mercenaries like Westlife and the Backstreet Boys. Isaac and sibs Taylor, 17, and Zach, 14, are part of an older tradition that predates the evil of boy bands, valuing passion for music above everything else. To that end, they write and play their own songs, and are taken seriously by credible people (Beck sideman DJ Swamp, and Sly and the Family Stone's Rose Stone, who appear on this album).

Their inescapable 1997 hit, Mmmbop (number one in 22 countries), was undeniably teen pop, but in an organic way that evoked comparisons with the Jackson Five. They don't wear Tommy Hilfiger clown pants, and don't prop up their act with whizzy choreography.

In fact, all that's standing between them and respect is their youth and looks. If they were 10 years older and had Mick Jaggerly road atlases for faces, they'd be assuming their place in the pantheon of melodic guitar groups rather than being bracketed with the likes of Westlife. "If I saw a band like us, the first thing I'd say is 'Fake - they were put together'," Taylor admits.

They were only put together in the same way the Jacksons were in that their parents encouraged them to perform at a very young age, so that when they came to major-label attention drummer Zach hadn't yet turned 11. (And he still seems a long way from maturity, his attention-seeking antics irritating a recent interviewer so much that her piece was headlined "How long does it take to get to hate someone?" A bit harsh, perhaps, but I can verify the bit about him woofing like a dog, having met him when they were promoting their debut album, Middle of Nowhere.)

That album sold 8m copies, and for a first effort by a band with a collective age of 41, it wasn't bad. That said, any boy-band LP boasting self-penned rock songs rather than the usual bought-in ballads was going to sound like Sgt Pepper.

The question is whether This Time Around improves on a promising start. Equivocally, yes. Equivocally because, though it's a highly accomplished record, Hanson still have an average age of 16, which means they often sound like 16-year-olds. It's cruel to laugh at such obviously heartfelt lyrics, but one day they'll look back and wince at "It's getting colder in this ditch where I lie/ I'm feeling older and I'm wondering why." Why a ditch?

The musical side of things meets any adult standard you'd care to name, however. Singer Taylor's formerly unbroken squeak is now on its way to a Lenny Kravitz-like rasp, and the music has grown up along with him. You Never Know tunefully rocks like a youthful Kravitz, and they do lovely things with a blues riff (played by prodigy Jonny Lang) and downbeat harmonies on Hand in Hand. Crowded House could have written the wistful Wish That I Was There, which features all three voices exuberantly dancing around a delicate melody. Pity that the closing ballad, A Song to Sing, sounds like Michael Jackson at his most pre-Jarvis maudlin, but one flop out of 13 works out at a dozen strong tunes.

Pretty fly for three pubescent white guys. It should be interesting to see what they come up with when they've had the chance to live a bit.

Hanson, This Time Around - NY Rock
By Cook Young

The Merry Chipmunks are back and this time they're rocking, baby. Not satisfied to limit themselves to a lifetime of imitating the Jackson 5, it appears the Hanson clan has dug out Dad's old Three Dog Night records and studied them carefully. The result is This Time Around, a collection of songs that have all the spunk and harmonies of debut release Middle of Nowhere, with a bit more kick added for good measure.

The CD opens with "You Never Know," a distinctly '70s sounding track, complete with Hammond organ, all spruced up for today's more demanding consumer. Aside from the edgier tone, the song, like the rest of the album, is no radical departure from the band's former efforts. And if you're a Hanson fan, eagerly waiting to run down to Wal-Mart to pick up the band's sophomore release, perhaps this is good thing. If you're a record exec at the Island Def Jam Music Group, it most assuredly is. This Time Around sounds like a chart buster, for sure. And on a good note, despite being commercial, Hanson's style of songwriting does manage to stay clear of the current sound diluting the airwaves a la Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync.

Stephen Lironi and Mark Hudson have once again been recruited to produce the CD and the result is a flawless if not somewhat predictable effort. The pair approach the new rocking Hanson by adding plenty of power chords and searing guitar leads. (Jonny Lang appears as a guest artist, as does Beck and John Popper.) Not to take the product too far from commercial territory, Lironi and Hudson smooth out the sound with layers of piano, acoustic guitars and Hanson's trademark harmonies.

On track number six, "Dying To Be Alive," Hanson apparently decided to augment their sound with another classic '60s/'70s influence: Sly and the Family Stone. This time, however, the group not only pulls old records from the closet, they actually recruit the artist herself. Rose Stone, from the Family Stone, appears to add wailing vocals, giving the three white boys a little more soul than they could ever hope to achieve on their own, try though they may.

The next track, "Can't Stop," is where the band obviously makes a stab at cutting loose, mixing the antiquated sound of a Hammond organ with the more modern sound of record scratching. The result is, well, a mix of the antiquated sound of a Hammond organ with record scratching ,Aei which brings me to this point. If there's any one complaint I have with the Hanson product it's that it is so obviously a product, in the true sense of the word, calculated, packaged, and delivered for maximum cash flow. There may be some excellent musicianship here but I don't sense a whole lot of substance. Maybe I'm just impatient, I'm looking forward to the day when the boys grow tired of doing as the adults of the world tell them to. Rebellion, that's what true rock and roll is about, me thinks.

BROTHERLY SHOVE 'THIS TIME AROUND,' HANSON PUSHED PAST TEENY-BOP SOUND - The Tribune - April 25, 2000

What kind of record is Hanson's upcoming release, "This Time Around"? Isaac, Zac and Taylor set out to capture a more mature sound. Did they pull it off? We snagged an advance copy of "This Time Around," which is due in stores May 9. We gave it a few spins, then dug out our copy of "Middle of Nowhere" (their 1997 debut) to make a few comparisons.

HERE'S HOW HANSON ALBUMS STACK UP:

'MIDDLE OF NOWHERE'

THE BASICS
Three-word title, 13 songs, pictures of those three gorgeous brothers dominating the front and back cover

THE REALLY BIG SINGLE
"MMMBop," a boyish, bouncy pop song with a nonsense-syllable chorus. So catchy it could make a statue dance.

STAR QUALITY
"Middle of Nowhere" is an apt title: They went into the studio unknowns; stardom was just a dream.

SOUNDS FAMILIAR?
"Something's been going on and I don't know what it is/ You don't mind the taking, girl, but you don't know how to give/ You drove me crazy, but I don't know, baby." ("Where's the Love")

SOUNDS UNFAMILIAR
Those high, happy voices make Hanson sound like a rock version of Jackson 5.

BIG THUMPS UP
The safe thing would be for three cute boys to make a boy-band album. "Middle of Nowhere" proves that Hanson isn't afraid to rock.

'THIS TIME AROUND'

THE BASICS
Three-word title, 13 songs, pictures of those three gorgeous brothers dominating the front and back cover

THE REALLY BIG SINGLE
"This Time Around," a mannish, moody rock song with a classic-rock chorus. And it's so catchy it could make a statue dance.

STAR QUALITY
Assembled their own all-star cast, including Jonny Lang, DJ Swamp (Beck) and John Popper (Blues Traveler).

SOUNDS FAMILIAR?
"This look you've given me is not a look for kissing/ Something I did or maybe something I said?/ You never know, baby, you never know." ("You Never Know")

SOUNDS UNFAMILIAR
Those gravelly, evolving voices make Hanson sound as if they've changed singers. What a difference puberty makes.

BIG THUMBS UP
The safe thing would be for three rock stars to make a retread of their smash debut. "This Time Around" proves that Hanson isn't afraid to spread its wings.

Hanson Improving With Age - The Daily Oklahoman - April 21, 2000
By George Lang

Zac Hanson, the drummer and youngest brother of the hit Tulsa-based band Hanson, has a deep, adolescent voice and is roughly one foot taller than he was three years ago when he and brothers Taylor and Isaac set the world on fire.

He is still 14 years old, but pop music is the province of the young. Zac believes history is on his side as the band prepares for the May 9 release of its new album, "This Time Around."

"Elvis Presley was barely as old as Isaac when he cut his first sides for Sun," he said. "Teen-agers and rock 'n' roll go together."

Having cut his teeth on '50s and '60s pop, Zac knows of what he speaks -- in fact, Presley was younger than 19-year-old guitarist Isaac Hanson when he pulled his Crown Electric Co. truck into Memphis' Sun Records to record his first 45 RPM single, "My Happiness," in 1953.

Before he turned 24, Presley had sold millions of records, was internationally adored by teenage girls from Tokyo to Tulsa and had almost single-handedly shifted the world's focus from the novelty hits of Patti Page and Rosemary Clooney to the propulsive, hip-shaking glories of early rock 'n' roll.

Similarly, Hanson's 1997 major-label debut, "Middle of Nowhere," sold 8 million copies worldwide. Wherever the brothers went during their initial promotional tour, they were in constant danger of having their clothes ripped to shreds by thousands of Hanson-crazed teen-age girls.

An early performance at the Paramus Park Mall in New Jersey attracted thousands of fans when the mall's security force was only prepared for a few hundred curiosity seekers. Another appearance at Jakarta, Indonesia's Hard Rock Cafe forced riot police to shut down a planned concert.

Hanson also changed popular music, pulling attention away from then-dominant alternative rock and refocusing the spotlight on young, peppy hitmakers ranging from the Spice Girls to the Backstreet Boys.

Crediting or blaming the Hanson brothers for the resurgence of bubble gum pop might be a ponderous burden to place on the three blond teens from Tulsa, but the "Jackson 5-meets-Beck" sound of their first single, "MmmBop," seemed like a broadcast from another solar system when it breezed onto radio in March 1997.

Three long years later, Hanson must face the Frankenstein monster it zapped to life. While many believed the band would drop their instruments and come back dancing to processed synth-funk, Hanson is addressing the future with guitars in hand.

"This Time Around" bears the stamp of a young, organic rock band with more on its mind than competing with Christina Aguilera for the allowance money of worldwide mall crawlers.

Gone are the hired guns like Brill Building songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and '80s pop manufacturer Ellen Shipley -- the brothers wrote all the material for the new album. In their places are guest musicians like Blues Traveler harp blower John Popper, who turns in distinctive harmonica work on "If Only," and Jonny Lang, the teen-age Texas blues guitar sensation. Lang's aggressive guitar work on the album's title track and leadoff single help the band assert itself as a rock group.

Even if Hanson is unable to score the sales of its last proper album, the brothers did not coast on their previous success.

"Our songwriting and musical style have developed in a lot of ways," Isaac Hanson said. "The guitar sound is heavier in points than before. But there are also more soft moments, more piano and keyboard-driven material than on the last record.

"There's been an overall evolution within the band."

It was an evolution achieved while the forces that helped propel Hanson to superstardom were nowhere to be found and a new methodology had overtaken the music industry. Hanson's initial success came after years of cultivation as a familiar act on Tulsa stages. Performing at events like Tulsa's Mayfest celebration, the group known as the Hanson Brothers, would sing old-fashioned doo-wop backed by prerecorded tapes.

At first the group was merely a curiosity, but regular performances at Bell's Amusement Park and the Blue Rose Cafe brought the boys a loyal following among the grade-school demographic.

Under the tutelage of their father, Walker Hanson, a financial expert of a Tulsa-based oil firm who eventually left his job to manage the band, Hanson began to broaden their horizons. As early as 1994, the band performed at Austin's South By Southwest Music and Media Conference.

Actually, Hanson wasn't a registered band at the event -- Zac, Taylor and Isaac were itinerant harmonizers, performing for whoever would stop and listen. Eventually, the Hansons gained an audience with manager Christopher Sabec at an industry softball game.

"They sang a cappella there was nothing else," Sabec said. "Recognizing their talent didn't take a long time. It was obvious -- they were so talented."

Eventually, they made their way to Sabec, who was instantly impressed by the brothers' harmonies. But it would take more than Sabec's enthusiasm to achieve success in the music industry.

Over the next two years, the band would record learn to play instruments and record two independent albums, 1994's "Boomerang" and 1996's "MMMBop," featuring an early version of their breakthrough hit. While the discs were sold at local record stores, they were mainly created as demo tapes for prospective record companies.

In June 1996, Sabec talked Steve Greenberg, then senior vice president of A&R for Mercury Records, into seeing Hanson perform at a fair in Coffeeville, Kan.

Greenberg was astounded: he looked for all the tell-tale puppet strings associated with teen acts, like lip-synching and missed drumbeats, but found nothing. In a matter of weeks, the band was signed to a deal.

For the balance of the year, the entire Hanson family decamped to the Hollywood Hills while Zac, Taylor and Isaac recorded "Middle of Nowhere" in the trendy L.A. bedroom community of Silverlake with British producer Steve Lironi and the Dust Brothers (Jon King and Michael Simpson) who had just completed Beck's classic "Odelay" CD.

From the time radio programmers started adding "MMMBop" to playlists the following spring, the year belonged to Hanson. "MMMBop" enjoyed one of the fastest climbs in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart.

"Where's the Love?" "I Will Come To You" and "Weird" all performed strongly for the rest of 1997 and early 1998.

An early performance on CBS-TV's "Late Show with David Letterman" provided the group with its first national appearance, leading to performances on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and any other program with a host and a couch.

Critics delivered generally positive reviews and the band received Oklahoma Today Magazine's "Oklahoman of the Year" award. Music Television placed Hanson in heavy rotation, and despite an MTV promo in which future would-be presidential candidate Donald Trump declared that "Hanson sucks," an expected widespread backlash followed. But the teen-agers endured.

At the end of the decade, Rolling Stone magazine listed "Middle of Nowhere" as one of the "Essential Albums of the '90s."

However, what followed "Middle of Nowhere" tested the endurance of even devoted Hanson fans. Mercury rushed the band into the studio in late-1997 to record its Christmas album, "Snowed In," which also went platinum despite an underwhelming response from the critics who championed "Middle of Nowhere."

After that, Mercury released two "stop-gap" albums in 1998 to tide fans over until Hanson delivered new material: "Three Car Garage: Indie Recordings 1995-1996." The album culled material from "Boomerang" and "MMMBop," and "Live from Albertane," recorded during the band's Summer 1998 tour.

By the time the live disc was released, the band was suffering from overexposure and their audience was MMMBop'ed out. Hanson spent most of 1999 out of the public eye, quietly beginning work on an album with producer Ric Ocasek, the former leader of the Cars.

Meanwhile, most of the record company executives who steered "Middle of Nowhere" to multi-platinum success were given pink slips.

In January 1999, Seagram, the alcohol distiller and owner of MCA Records, bought Polygram, the parent company of the Mercury, Island, Motown, A&M, Geffen and Def Jam labels. Mercury label chief Danny Goldberg and A&R rep Tom Zutaut, who hired Ocasek for the new album, both lost their jobs as the label was absorbed into the conglomerated Universal Music Group.

Zutaut's replacement, Jeff Fenster, had signed Britney Spears to Jive/Arista. When Fenster fired Ocasek a few weeks into the recording of "This Time Around," the move prompted speculation that the label wanted to turn Hanson into N'Sync. Ocasek later told Rolling Stone that Fenster did not want the band playing the instruments on the album.

"And I said, 'Why not?'" Ocasek told the magazine in July 1999. "'They're the band and they wrote the songs and they're playing on the record.' He said, 'If you like this [music], then you're probably not the guy.' I said, 'Well, I love it. I think it's phenomenal.'"

Fenster denied that he was trying to turn Hanson into a 'boy band,' and replaced Ocasek with "Middle of Nowhere" co-producer Lironi.

Critics fears were assuaged with the release of the "This Time Around" single last month. The single is harder and heavier than any previous Hanson song, resembling the blues-based southern rock of the Black Crowes more than the synthetic pop rock of 98 Degrees or the Backstreets.

Singer and keyboard player Taylor Hanson delivers the song in a throaty, soulful voice that was only hinted at on the previous album, and he said the song is indicative of his band's future direction.

"We just felt that song best represented where the music was going -- the genre we want to be associated with," said Taylor, 17. "It's a little more rock 'n' roll -- the chord structure is more complex."

While the album lacks a song as immediately infectious as "MMMBop," it is free of overtly bubblegum pop, featuring a gospel choir on "Dying to Be Alive" and scratching from Beck's turntablist, DJ Swamp, on "In the City," a blues inflected rave-up about infidelity.

"That song is basically about a wife or a girlfriend who's having an affair," Taylor said. "She keeps running off and you're left asking 'What's going on in the city?' Not exactly an experience we've had."

Avoiding the dangerous "sophomore slump" is hard enough without having to grow up in the spotlight at the same time. The pressure is on, and while the jury is still out on whether Hanson's fan base will return for "This Time Around," the group has clearly put musical ambition over easy commercial decisions.

They are even sounding more serious these days: while Zac used to joke about throwing metal suitcases at his brothers during touring squabbles, the brothers are taking a more toe-the-line approach in 2000.

"Sometimes you're the one who's tired and goofing off, or you're the one saying 'Now it's time to get down to business,'" Taylor said. "The fact that everybody plays off of each other makes the whole thing work."

Isaac Hanson said the bottom line for the band, regardless of the commercial prospects of the new album, is being able to record and play music for a living.

"Getting to make the music, and having a good time doing it, is the most important thing to us," he said.

Album Review - Abercrombie & Fitch Summer Catalog 2000
By Sophie Geidt

This Time Around (Island)

The boys who started the teen revolution three years ago are back and center stage. Before you cringe, remember that there is one huge difference that separates these Oakie goodfellas from the rest of the boy bands and the troupe of blondie girlie girls: These dudes actually write and play their own music.

With their sophomore release, Zac, Isaac, and Taylor have proven they are no fluke. Not only is their songwriting solid, with catchy melodies and more mature lyrics, but these young men can jam and sing. Taylor's voice has broken and can really get the girls going. This Time Around is a damn cool pop-rock album. Buy it.

   
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