Hanson makes me smile.<\/p>\n
And, sometimes a smile is all you need.\u00a0 In 1997, this trio of brothers issued the punchy, exuberant Middle Of Nowhere<\/i>, one of the decade\u2019s teen pop classics, and while adulthood has brought new insights and concerns, as well as an added layer of sophistication, the fundamentals of their music remain the same.\u00a0 Taylor Hanson still takes his vocal cues from Michael Jackson\u2019s days with the Jackson 5; the hooks and choruses are still unstoppably infectious; and the music is still a giddy mixture of classicist piano pop with foot-tapping blue-eyed soul.<\/p>\n
Shout It Out<\/i>, the eighth studio disc from brothers <\/i>Taylor (vocals\/keys), Isaac (guitars\/vocals) and Zak (drums\/vocals), veers confidently between finger-snapping blue-eyed funk-pop and gorgeous piano ballads.\u00a0 Kickoff track \u201cWaiting For This\u201d delivers a sunburst of optimism before dropping right into totally groovalicious lead single \u201cThinkin\u2019 \u2018Bout Somethin\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 The latter features Taylor on electric piano while Zak keeps the feet tapping with a snappy drum\/percussion line and Isaac punctuates the verses with blasts of guitar.\u00a0 The elements that take the song over the top, though, are a horn section that never lets up, and a vocal that reminds of the pure exuberance Steve Winwood gave off on \u201cGimme Some Lovin\u2019\u201d back in the day.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
What\u2019s different from Nowhere<\/i> days is that this track has an lyrical edge to it; it\u2019s actually a smartass kiss-off, with Taylor singing \u201cI\u2019ve been thinkin\u2019 \u2018bout somethin\u2019 \/ Other than you\u201d to his cheating soon-to-be-ex.\u00a0 \u201cKiss Me When You Come Home\u201d follows with a dynamite piano hook that does what great hooks do \u2013 holds the whole rest of the song together.\u00a0 Middle-section highlights include \u201cGive A Little,\u201d which features a nice Ric Ocasek surface-tension riff from Isaac that subsequently blossoms, punctuated by another strong horn chart, and \u201cAnd I Waited,\u201d which grafts an assertive guitar lead onto a toughened-up disco beat; it comes off a bit like a parallel-universe run at \u201cBeat It.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toward the end, \u201cThese Walls\u201d builds off a piano line that\u2019s a close cousin of Springsteen\u2019s immortal \u201cBackstreets,\u201d and \u201cVoice In The Chorus\u201d brings those snappy-snappy horns back.\u00a0 The album closes with \u201cMe, Myself and I,\u201d a stunning breakup ballad, thoughtful and heartfelt, beautifully composed, arranged and played, with just Taylor, his piano, and background vocals from Zak and Isaac.<\/p>\n
Shout It Out<\/i> is a solidly enjoyable disc with no pretensions of being a great one.\u00a0 Entertaining as these tunes often are, there is a sameness to them; they all sound very much like, well, Hanson.\u00a0 You can pretty much predict when the foot-tapping light funk is going to transition to the soaring piano ballad, and that it\u2019s all going to sound super-clean and bright.\u00a0 That said, the somewhat same-y middle section is sandwiched by some absolutely terrific numbers at the beginning and the end.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
My ultimate take on Shout It Out<\/i> is simple: there is not so much joy in the world that we can afford to squander it when it makes itself known.\u00a0 These three guys clearly love making music, and pour themselves into every note. \u00a0Enjoy this album for what it is, and you will enjoy it indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5976],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42000","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-hanson","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42000","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42000"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42000"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}