Newark Star-Ledger
Mar 06, 2004 |
But another group that led the teen-pop surge of the mid- to late-'90s is still together.
Not that you'd necessarily recognize them. Brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson are now adults living in New York. At the height of their popularity, the boys from Tulsa, Okla., were 11 to 16 years old.
Hanson was last seen here in November playing a stripped-down, acoustic show at Carnegie Hall. "Underneath," their comeback album to be released on their own 3CG label next month, has some songs as melancholy as their signature 1997 hit "MMMBop" was cheerful.
"Is there a resolution for this pain that I'm in," they sing on the album's title track, written with Matthew Sweet, a master of the dark love song. Other album collaborators include Gregg Alexander of the arty pop group New Radicals, and Danny Kortchmar, who has worked with Jackson Browne, James Taylor and Don Henley.
The band, which will perform at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville on March 13, includes some upbeat songs on "Underneath." "Lost Without Each Other" has the bouncy feel of vintage Motown. "Dancing in the Wind" is built around pop-metal power chords. But the melancholy lyrics and moody feel of tracks like "Misery" and "When You're Gone" will surprise some fans.
"We wanted to have a rich-textured album," says keyboardist Taylor Hanson, 20. (Guitarist Isaac Hanson is 23 now; drummer Zac Hanson, 18.) "When you listen to a band like U2 or even Coldplay, they have texturally rich albums -- you can play it in the background and have it fill a room."
To create the vibe they wanted, the Hansons handled most of the production themselves. The indie route is not new to them. The brothers put out their own 1995 debut album, "Boomerang," after they failed to land a major-label record deal.
Hanson hit the big time after Mercury/PolyGram handled their 1997 album, "Middle Of Nowhere," and "MMMBop" became ubiquitous. The company saturated the market with Hanson product -- a Christmas album ("Snowed In," 1997), a concert recording ("Live From Albertane," 1998) and a reissue of their early material (the 1998 "Three Car Garage: Indie Recordings, 1995-1996"). Hanson's next major release "This Time Around" (2000) sold only one million worldwide; "Middle Of Nowhere" did eight million.
After Mercury/PolyGram became part of the Island Def Jam empire, the band didn't see eye to eye with its new bosses and negotiated a split. Taylor Hanson says starting fresh on their own label "was the only thing that felt like we were going toward something new ... the opportunity to build the next chapter in Hanson's career."
The crowds are smaller now -- the band no longer headlines at arenas -- but as enthusiastic as they ever were, Hanson says.
"The whole thing with making music and having a career is, it's a roller coaster. That's why the basis of what you do has to be that you love going out there and making music."
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