Hanson - The Walk

So the little boys from Hanson are all grown up. The pipsqueaks who invaded your radio with "MMMbop" a decade ago are back -- with low voices, chest hair and all the other great things that come from puberty. Their music is a little more mature too, but you can still hear traces of the crackling single that drove America to the brink of insanity during the late 90s. When push comes to shove, The Walk is everything you'd expect from a pop outfit that has been honing its craft since their days in diapers. Frontman Taylor Hanson clearly is still the engine that makes the band go. His voice has dropped into a surprisingly pleasant and versatile tenor that guides his bandmates through the rockers and the ballads. He performs particularly well on the opening track, "Ngi Ne Themba." (That's right, Hanson is so deep now that they've turned to Africa for inspiration.) Brothers Isaac and Zac also chip in vocally: they support Taylor ably enough, and both have grown into pretty nice players with the instruments too. Isaac handles a few heavy guitar solos with admirable skill and grace. The big problem with it all is that it's like Hanson is finally catching up to what the grown-ups were playing in 1997. Songs like "Georgia" borrow too much from what was popular when the boys were still MMM-bopping. They can play very well, but the songwriting's still got a long way to go. Even still, the Hanson brothers deserve some credit for the effort, but they may have benefited from a different approach. Just think of how many heads they would have turned if they had covered the Grateful Dead's "Fire on the Mountain" instead of writing their own tune with that title. [www.hanson.net]