Hanson. Just naming the group of “Mmm Bop” fame might send some
\npeople running for the exits. How could this relatively harmless
\ntrio of brothers evoke such a negative response from people?<\/p>\n
Easy – they made two big mistakes. More correctly, the people
\nwho handled Hanson made two big mistakes. The first was that they
\nwere marketed to be too cute. Three words: the Olsen Twins. ‘Nuff
\nsaid. Cute in small doses is okay; cute invading your living room
\nconstantly is a diabetic coma.<\/p>\n
That’s the second mistake that those who handled Hanson made –
\noverexposure. Not only was “Mmm Bop” everywhere, but the group
\nreleased four – count ’em, four – albums within a two-year period.
\nYou ha the studio release, the Christmas release (
\nSnowed In<\/i>), the demo collection and the live disc. It was
\nenough to make even the teenage girls wonder if they shouldn’t be
\nseeing other guys.<\/p>\n
So now that Hanson has returned with their fifth album
\nThis Time Around<\/i>, even with a more mature look and sound,
\nthey have an uphill battle to climb. And so far, people’s reaction
\nto this album has been indifference, as it’s pretty much been
\nignored. Too bad – ’cause the brothers Hanson might be lightweight,
\nbut they do know how to record an enjoyable, non-threatening
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
The proof is there in the title cut, a song which dares to show
\nthe band – Zac, Taylor and Isaac – rocking out to their light pop
\nbeats and harmonizing to the Nth degree. But the songwriting is
\ntight, and the performances are just as powerful, proving that
\nHanson not only is challenging to regain their old ground, but they
\nmight just have scored the upper hand over their early days.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, it doesn’t seem like it will be that easy of a
\njourney.
\nThis Time Around<\/i> starts off weakly with “You Never Know,” a
\nsong whose repetitive chorus nearly scuttles everything from the
\nget-go. Fortunately, this is the only example of weak songwriting
\non the disc – but the next challenge is keeping the listener’s
\ninterest throughout the disc. This is the harder of the battles, as<\/p>\n
This Time Around<\/i> tends to jump around a bit stylistically.
\nYou’ve got introspective songs like “Love Song” and “Hand In Hand”
\nintermixed with more powerful numbers like “Dying To Be Alive” and
\n“Wish That I Was There,” but sometimes it doesn’t feel like they
\nblend that well.<\/p>\n
I don’t know if anything could have corrected that, though
\nrepeat listens to the album seem to clarify things. But in an
\nindustry that looks for the new flavor of the month, one wonders if
\nlisteners’ musical taste buds would want to keep giving this disc
\nthe benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n
And that’s a shame, really.
\nThis Time Around<\/i> is by no means a bad album; it shows that
\nHanson rightfully earned their 15 minutes of fame way back when.
\nBut people might not be able (or willing) to get past “Mmm Bop,”
\nand won’t be able to see that this is an older, wiser group than
\nthe rag-top mopheads who ran amok in the parking lot in their first
\nvideo.<\/p>\n
Hanson is a band who show they have something more to offer
\nlisteners than what you may think. And
\nThis Time Around<\/i>, even with some inherent weaknesses,
\ndeserves the chance to prove that to people. Here’s hoping more
\nlisteners give them a try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5976],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36790","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-hanson","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36790"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36790"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}