The Walk

Hanson brothers release albums on their own label

Most of the people remember Hanson as a band of three singing blonde boys the youngest of which looked about ten or twelve, not more. Nevertheless, the age of Hanson brothers was rather their trump card than a hindrance – Hanson were extremely popular in the late 90's especially among teenagers. Many still remember their main hit MMMBop, which was released in 1997. But unfortunately loud success didn't last long; Hanson disappeared from view by early 2000's and stayed in the shadow for a pretty long time, this in particular concerns a break up of their relations with the major label. Hanson appeared again on a big music arena in 2004 with their album called Underneath released on the band's own label 3CG Records, and though the album started at number one in Billboard Independent Album Chart, it passed almost unnoticed in comparison with the former success and Hanson themselves said that they have accumulated loss in making and releasing it. But Hanson brothers don't surrender, their new album The Walk released on the same 3CG Records turns out to be a pretty strong attempt to bring the bygone fame back.          

The Walk – a combination of maturity and good taste

For the time of their absence on a big scene Hanson brothers have naturally grown up and became quite serious performers, the band was continually writing and recording songs as well as touring across the globe. Stylistically, The Walk doesn't differ a lot from the Hanson's former works, the general line of the album is a smooth and mellow pop, yet Hanson blend it with rock and funk, so their music can be compared with such bands as Maroon 5, in a reasonable degree of course. The album is full of radio friendly mid tempo, up tempo and ballad tracks. The first album's song Great Divide is definitely the best here. It has a great main riff, smart vocal melody and nice backing choir. This is a good example to demonstrate what Hanson brothers are doing now; their pop maturity and good taste are obvious. The song is followed by another good funky piece Been Their Before, this is a piano driven song but it encloses tasty guitar parties and nice drums as well. In fact, this is the production work that astonishes you most of all, the overall sound is deep and velvet and the balance between pop material and competent rock sounding is represented in a very good proportion. Another album's highlights are Blue Sky, Fire On The Mountain and Running Man. The songs are quite different but they all carry this very stamp of quality.            

The songs from The Walk possess an inexplicable magnetism

Overall The Walk is sufficiently interesting record; the album will fit those who love soft pop rock perfectly. The only thing that may confuse a listener is a slight stylistic vagueness of the record. Characteristic Hanson's melodies and guitar driven songs stand along with a frequent bends to funk, soul and even R&B, which sound pretty good but upset the general integrity of the album. The Walk's best moments are represented in harmonious combinations of these genres and simple, time tested pop rock. The album's advantage is simplicity and accessibility of the songs that sound attractive even despite abundance of standards and clichés. Its disadvantage is that fact that there are not so many things that are able to catch you up indeed. Many of these nice pop tracks sound pretty attractive but they can hardly hold your attention for a long time. But the album deserves good marks nevertheless; The Walk's puzzle is that Hanson managed to record a unique in its own way disk of qualitative pop using quite standard moves. The album opens nothing new but it possesses its own inconceivable magnetism.