If you want to see the benefits of taking a good, long time-out, you've just got to get caught up with those Hanson guys.
In the years since Hanson released the giddy breakthrough hit "MMMBop" and the 1997 debut "Middle Of Nowhere," we've been poked with all three points on the dreaded filler triangle: the holiday album ("Snowed In"), the "rarities/demos" comp ("3 Car Garage), and the live album ("Live From Albertane"). A dry spell, it seemed.
What we weren't privy to, however, was how the towheaded trio of Oklahoma hermanos -- Isaac, Taylor, and Zac -- stretched out and bulked up, settling into their young adult selves with comfort and confidence, radiating with good health and good vibes. The picture is so reassuring, you just might think for a moment that all is right with the world, or something.
Take a listen to what the brothers have been up to in the studio, and you may feel the need to jump back and smack yourself. The group's infectious melodies and sunny harmonies remain intact on the tracks readied for the group's true follow-up disc, "This Time Around" (due out in May), but the expected bubble-gummy, cavity-causing sweetness has been displaced by grit, gospel, and a few strong whiffs of patchouli and incense.
Jackson 5 comparisons of old will be lost as you find yourself making sonic allusions to The Black Crowes (and, in the band's more romantic moments, Matchbox 20). Hooking up on the LP with H.O.R.D.E. Tour-ready folk as Blues Traveler harpsman John Popper and blues-travelin' guitarist Jonny Lang (who appears on the title track, which is also the first single) seems only to point up the group's metamorphosis from a cute lil' caterpillar into a groovy-colored butterfly.
MTV News' very own John Norris met up with Los Bros. Hanson to get the scoop on the eternity between albums, the current boy-band climate, the fans who've stuck by them through thick and thin, and early reactions to the new LP -- something Isaac describes as "a good wow."
Oh, and let's not forget the new haircuts.
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