Note from June 2022: A year has passed since the release of the first song from Against the World. To say that I’m late to the party is an understatement. Does anyone still care? RGB - the new album - is out, and Hanson are touring Europe. I’ve decided to post this review anyway, who knows, it might rekindle my Hanson-themed blogging.
"Annalie"
When I first heard "Annalie" during Zac’s solo at BTTI 2020 I was left unimpressed. Here’s another Zac song named after a girl, and what about that chorus, is it catchy or irritating?
Fast forward mid- 2021 and not only we had, by that point, lived in a pandemic for over a year, but Hanson had just announced that the new album was going to be made up of 7 songs, to be released one at a time every month. Starting with "Annalie".
“Annalie”’ came out in May 2020, complete with a music video and ‘making of’ clips on YouTube. The studio version was very different from the stripped-down, Zac pounding on the piano version I’d heard in Jamaica, and it featured a really cool, catchy-as-hell guitar hook that sounded a lot like Simon & Garfunkel.
I still wasn’t keen on the song, especially the chorus, which employed Zac’s higher range. Zac has the most flawless voice of the trio, and to me his mid-range has the most depth, but in recent years he seems to prefer singing really high, when he doesn’t go totally falsetto. But that guitar hook got stuck in my head and inevitably, "Annalie" gradually grew on me. But still, what was it about? In the ‘making of’ the video, Zac talked about going to Memphis, and finding that Grace of making music together. I’m not sure that really comes across in the song, but lyrics sometimes work in obscure ways, and although to me and the average person, the idea that the song is about the brothers finding the joy of music again doesn’t quite work, there is definitely a sense of joy and travel poking out from those notes. By the time "Annalie" had hit my inbox (the modern way of music delivery) in May 2021, I was totally ready for both.
“Don’t Ever Change”
If ATW was a full length album - one containing more than seven songs - I would relegate this Taylor lead to the category of ‘deep cut’. But as ATW is barely more than an EP, I am forced to expand. DEC is a rather unremarkable, vaguely-heard-before-Members EP-level off-cut, sounding like much of Hanson’s recent Members-only fare. It’s like several Taylor leads from the past 3 Members EPs put together - but don’t ask me which ones, because they all mingle into one. If you really want comparisons, think back to Anthem. DEC is like a weaker version of “Cut Right Through Me” but without the bite. I predict that it will be played live even less frequently than the former.
“Only Love”
Ahhh, finally. At long last, a powerful, punchy, solid Isaac lead that isn’t a ballad or a derivative old-style rock’n’roll song. Right from the guitar opening, "Only Love" is full of promises - which it then more than amply delivers in the kind of heartfelt, heart-on-your- sleeve chorus that showcases Isaac’s voice at its best.
This is a really good song. Scratch that, this is a terrific song. Nobody will ever get to hear it, because Hanson chose to lead the album’s release with "Annalie", but I can tell you from empirical evidence that this is the kind of song that will appeal to non-fans as well. We’re only three songs into this review but I’m going to drop a spoiler: "Only Love" is the best song of the album.
Against the World
Title tracks carry a lot of responsibility. They are important songs in an album, but rarely get picked as the first single. In the case of ATW-the album, every song was a single anyway, and ATW was the fourth one. It’s a trademark Hanson’s mid-tempo affair, with a catchy chorus, strategically placed harmonies, a U2-like guitar riff and Bono-like vocals in the bridge. Taylor and Isaac share the lead vocals - always a very popular choice among the fan base. If, once again, we go back to Anthem, ATW is to this album what Already Home was to its last studio predecessor. So what’s wrong with it? Not much, other than a sense of deja-vu, especially with lyrics that once again place the narrator/Hanson as underdogs fighting against the rest of the world. It’s a tired theme by now - for how much longer can Hanson re-has their David vs Goliath battle against Def Jam? Can Hanson - three wealthy musicians who, thanks to a hardcore loyal fan base, will never find themselves in need of a day job - really still sell that story?
But all said and done, ATW is a good album song and one that I would like to hear live - something that didn’t even happen at the last BTTI. Will it ever happen? Your guess is as good as mine. *
*Update: at the time of posting this, in June 2022, ATW has been played at several shows of the European tour!
Stronger
Another Taylor lead, the fifth track in the album is a poignant piano ballad that starts sombre and then soars in a chorus laced with Hanson’s trademark harmonies. Am I wrong in saying that “Stronger” would have been a great fit for String Theory? We will never know, but it’s certainly the kind of song that would crown a show in that kind of epic, "Show Must Go On"- era Queen style, complete with guitar solo halfway through. I like it, although in terms of production, it’s a little too much for me, too big a sound, too rich on the toppings. But I bet this would sound amazing as a solo.
One
The one that sounds a little like “What Are We Fighting For”. Well it doesn’t quite sound like it but you know what I mean - it’s that kind of song. Unlike most recent Zac leads, it’s a little bit more complex than the usual fare of mostly piano/mostly guitar, and finally we get a falsetto-free Zac lead.
This song was written before Hanson’s recent controversy, and as such, the lyrics have been dismissed as irrelevant in terms of a peace offering. But the very fact that ‘One’ was included in the album is very telling, and if you have been a fan of this band for a while you will know that Hanson tend to communicate obliquely. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and choose to believe that.
Fearless
Right from the opening bar, the strings in Fearless remind me of ‘Siren Call’. There are stomps and claps adding to that ominous sound, then a sort of marching drum kicks in. It’s another Zac lead, and I’ve come to the conclusion that Zac leads mostly fall into two categories recently: the ‘song about a girl’ and the ‘haunting existential theme song’. Fearless belongs to the latter category. Like its predecessors in this category, this is most definitely an album track - not a bad thing in itself, but that means that “Fearless” is unlikely to ever get played live.
Conclusions
A year after the release of the first song from ATW, it’s as if the 7-song-album-not-an-album never even happened, and that’s sad. Granted, 2021 was no ordinary year: the pandemic was still going, bands weren’t touring, nobody really had any certainty. However, some bands released albums (a case in point - NEEDTOBREATHE). So why did Hanson practically give up on ATW? Why did the band even call it an album - why not market it as some kind of EP, or in between projects? Why try to sell it as an album and then immediately act as if it never happened?
If you have been a Hanson fan for a while you will know that answers, when it comes to this band, are never forthcoming. You can wonder and speculate but you’ll never get a satisfying explanation - only some blink-and-you-miss-it vague allusion buried in a podcast episode or ‘making of’ video, that only the most eagle-eyed fan will catch. It makes you wonder if that’s a deliberate ploy, a way of keeping you hooked, leaving you hanging and wanting more - or if it’s just one of those things - Hanson do things, get bored of things and move on, with no great criminal masterplan behind. Either way, after eleven years of playing this game, I have stopped trying to understand them.
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