Review Summary: Nowhere near as bad as you think, Hanson's debut is a fairly pleasant, if incredibly guilty, listen.
“Hanson. Remember them? Those little brats that charmed half the world and annoyed the other half back in 1996? Yeah, that’s them! And remember their debut album? The one with the yellow cover and that song,
Mmmbop? Oh man, I can’t
believe we actually liked that stuff! Were we ever childish!”
The paragraph above reflects how most of you (hell, most of
us) refer to Hanson nowadays: in the same snide, dismissive tone we reserve for other special parts of our childhood, like the Power Rangers or Pokémon. We don’t want to admit we ever had anything to do with it, but at the same time we’re proud that other people still remember them as much as we do.
Of course, Hanson – the trio of teenage brothers with a knack for harmonizing – were best remembered for their annoyingly infectious bubblegum hit,
Mmmbop. This tune, with its nonsensical chorus and bouncy beat, was literally
everywhere back in the day, and it helped catapult the brothers to superstardom, as well as influence the formation of similar groups, such as the Moffatts. The subsequent album,
Middle Of Nowhere, sought to capitalize on the success of its single, and it partially succeeded.
I’ll admit: I liked Hanson, and I was stoked to get this for my eleventh birthday. It was
exactly what I’d been wanting, and now I could listen to
Mmmbop all the time! It was great! Sadly, in my excitement, I pretty much neglected all the rest of the album. I would listen to
Mmmbop and
Yearbook, a haunting ballad whose lyrics, at the time, seemed awesomely eerie. I was the kind of kid who actually read the lyrics sheet, and my level of English at the time was sufficient to understand the story of a kid who disappeared without a trace, not even a picture on the yearbook. But apart from those two songs, I barely acknowledged the album at all.
So here I am now, at 24, trying to rectify that mistake. 13 years have passed, my CD collection has grown tenfold and my tastes have matured: I got into hard rock, then metal and punk. Certainly a bubblegum-pop album sung by three adolescent brothers would be far beneath me now!? I approached this one in just such a frame of mind, ready to trash it as a lot of filler padding that one single, and give it a 2 at best.
………………………………………… ……………………………………but I didn’t.
I’m ashamed to say that, even at the present time, I still enjoyed this album far more than I would ever allow in public. I found it to be a fairly pleasant, if incredibly guilty, listen, with some actually good songs – which, as expected, do not include
Mmmbop.
Still, it wouldn’t be right
not to recommend the single. After all, it’s the album’s
raison d’être, and the reason why most people ever picked it up in the first place. However, the song did not resist the test of time and endless radio airplays. From a 2009 standpoint, it’s hard to see what all the fuss was about, even if it remains a more intelligent and honest tune than most radio hits of today. But it’s the main reason
Middle Of Nowhere was ever created, and the one reason why we ever heard of Hanson. So
of course it’s a standout.
The songs around it, however, are by no means laid to waste. Where the brothers and their producers could have taken the easy route and puked out a string of unmemorable filler songs, but they actually cared enough to craft a wholly satisfying album that would justify the listener’s investment. Sure, it’s heavily layered, and it has more guests than Paris Hilton’s bedroom. But it does, at least feature some involvement from the titular brothers, who write about half the songs by themselves and co-write the rest, as well as occasionally playing guitar, keyboards and drums. Not bad, considering they were 11, 13 and 17 at the time of the album’s inception.
Leaving the songwriting to a bunch of kids has its consequences, of course: a drum pattern as basic as the one on
Mmmbop is only excusable if it’s played by your 11-year-old brother, who still doesn’t know how to do breaks. Seriously, there’s barely a single break on this song, not even in the percussion-heavy last chorus. Elsewhere, the performances are rather more distinguished, although one suspects it’s not young Zac playing on those songs…
Similarly, the album suffers from “the Chipmunks sindrome”. That is to say, for an album made by kids, and presumably for kids, there are some distinctively racy lyrics sprinkled throughout. If we consider lead singer Taylor’s voice hasn’t even broken yet – and he sounds surprisingly effeminate, even for a 13-year-old – it’s cringe-worthy to hear him sing lyrics like
”she walks in with that look in her eye/somehow she doesn’t even have to try/kick off your shoes and get on the floor/this is what we came here for”. Sure, it could just be about dancing, but somehow I doubt it…And what about
”said come on baby you think I’m so blind/I see what you’re doing behind my back all the time/I get suspicious when you call me someone else’s name”? Or
”if I’m gone when you wake up please don’t cry/And if I’m gone when you wake up it’s not goodbye”? I’m sure a lot of 12-year-old girls had naughty fantasies about these lyrics, but somehow it seems wrong, like these kids should be singing about pyjama parties or worrying about their buddies, like they do in
Yearbook, instead of issuing sexual come-ons to girls.
Musically, the album is also surprisingly mature. Instead of beat-heavy pop, the brothers go for a funky brand of radio pop-rock which lends this album an elegant sheen.
Look At You could have been penned by the Jackson 5, while
Where’s The Love reminds me, most of all, of a 12-year-old version of Bon Jovi. The abundant sappy ballads give the kids a chance to flex their singing muscles, and the bouncy, fun-loving tracks are also present in the form of
Mmmbop and bonus track
Man From Milwaukee.
However, there are a few problems. While
Where’s the Love and
I Will Come To You are very good, most of the other songs are rather nondescript. This is especially true of
Madeline,
A Minute Without You and
Speechless, a track which repeats some of the patterns from
Look At You. And while there are no declaredly weak tracks, the insufferably sappy
Lucy – sung by Zac Hanson – certainly treads that line. This is even more prominent when we contrast it with follow-up
I Will Come To You, a genuinely classy ballad that even gives older sibling Aaron a bit more airplay.
All in all, however, Hanson’s debut is not as bad as it’s made out to be. It’s a pleasant, breezy collection of pop songs that flows pleasantly, if unspectacularly. Not quite a great record, this is far above average, as well, and thus sits between a 3 and a 3.5. Final score: 3.2/5.
Recommended Tracks
Mmmbop
Where’s The Love
I Will Come To You
