Harder Than it Looks

James Iha, Taylor Hanson, Adam Schlesinger, and Bun E. Carlos

Jackson Free Press

May 6, 2009

Depending on your sentiments, power-pop is either music in its purest form or a vacuous and overly simplified genre. I have always been among the defenders, largely because it can be one of the most affecting types of music when done correctly. However, getting it right is a difficult assignment. Potential supergroup Tinted Windows’ recently released self-titled debut is evidence to this difficulty.

Listing the band members of Tinted Windows is like introducing the starting five of the NBA All-Star game: Taylor Hanson (Hanson) on lead vocals, James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) on guitar, Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) on bass and Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) on drums. These four heavyweights have a firm grasp on the principles of pop music, and their melodies reflect this.

The album has numerous catchy songs. “Kind of a Girl” and “Without Love” both wriggle their way into your head and down to your lips with little resistance. Hanson has developed a more-than-serviceable rock ‘n’ roll voice since his pre-pubescent Hanson days. Iha comes up with enough memorable guitar riffs to fill the record, while Schlesinger and Carlos—whose work is the band’s primary influence—give the album its direction.

Therein lies the problem, however. While Fountains of Wayne and Cheap Trick are good at pumping out catchy riffs and hooky choruses, they betray the ideals left behind by power pop’s forefathers such as Badfinger and Big Star.

Truly great power-pop bands always put their primary emphasis on feeling. Power-pop at its best is perhaps the most nakedly emotional of all rock music’s subgenres. Listen to “Thirteen” by Big Star and note the sentimentality it coaxes out of you; listen to Raspberries’ “Overnight Sensation” and try not to get caught up in its intoxicating joy. Other genres simply cannot approach this poignancy.

Granted, these songs—and the genre in general—have historically focused on simple things. It bears noting, though, that simple and asinine can be mutually exclusive. The pursuance of a girl is no doubt a hackneyed song subject, but articulate, fresh lyrics can rejuvenate the feelings that come with it (insecurity, heartbreak, jubilation). Modern power-pop has regrettably fallen into idiocy with bands like Jimmy Eat World and All-American Rejects, who don’t make the effort to articulate emotion, preferring instead to hide behind over-produced hooks.

While Tinted Windows doesn’t quite sink to the present-day level of banality, they remain too concerned about the record’s sound to communicate genuine emotional depth. One of the album’s catchiest songs, “Dead Serious” is a testament to this. It should be a heart-rending plea to a woman, conveying the vulnerability one feels in the days leading to a breakup. Instead, it’s a baseless showpiece for the album’s pristine production. It’s a shame this song, and the album as a whole, chooses to eschew sentiment because Taylor Hanson belted one of the more blissful vocal tracks in pop music with “Mmmbop,” and James Iha was the instrumental backbone for some of the ’90s most emotionally raw rock songs.

Power-pop is a genre that only works with soul-baring truthfulness. If the band chooses to substitute this for anything else, whether it be production or inanity, it merely becomes James Blunt with prettier harmonies.

Original Article

The Blind Hatred of Three Brothers

Hanson in their hate-worthy days

Jackson Free Press

November 21, 2007

A couple weeks ago, I read a story about Isaac Hanson’s grave fight with a pulmonary embolism. This was a big deal for me, because Hanson played such a large role in my life as a music fan.

Hanson is the first band I can vividly remember hating. At age 13, I first laid eyes on their smiling faces beaming from the cover of the 49-cent “Mmmbop” single. I felt this maniacal surge of fury (since pegged as jealousy), and felt compelled to find the kids who were buying this garbage and smash their CD players.

Hatred of Hanson spread throughout middle-school boys around the country. The biggest thing that we all seemed to be upset about was that these kids were our age and “girly,” but all the girls liked them.

When I got a girlfriend who assured me that Hanson was no longer a threat, I discovered the real reason for my hatred: They were living in this non-existent Utopia. They came from a house with two parents and loving siblings, were home-schooled, so as to avoid the misery of public school, and they were always so happy and carefree. I resented that carefree life that I imagined they were living. They had a number-one single and roller blades.

Cut to 2002: After a few failed albums, the Hanson family name appeared in the celebrity magazines again. Taylor Hanson, lead singer and single-most hated person by middle school boys circa September 1997, reportedly got married at age 19. It would have been a pretty forgettable story (who wouldn’t have expected a Hanson to be married before he was 20?) except for the fact that his new wife was six months pregnant. Scandalous.

Could it be possible that a Hanson got married to avoid having a child out of wedlock? The revelation that Taylor may have gotten this girl pregnant was the equivalent of one of the kids in the comic strip “Family Circus” getting arrested for driving drunk through their grandparents’ graveyard.

That moment absolved Hanson of my pre-pubescent hatred, as it eliminated the notion that these kids had been living in a world without worry. Bad things could happen to them. The situation compelled me to buy their hit album “Middle of Nowhere,” which at the time was hard to find for more than a dollar. I took it home, listened to “Mmmbop” and was surprised to find myself thoroughly impressed. So impressed that I would include it on a short list of best bubblegum pop songs, though no one between the ages of 22 and 30 would admit it.

It’s a shame that Hanson was put through the pop-music machine and spit out after “Mmmbop” had run its course. The kids had talent. They could have been groomed into a full-fledged Jackson 5 for a new generation instead of this half-assed version with none of the music but all of the tragedy.

Now that Hanson and I have reconciled our differences, I can only wish Isaac a full recovery and Taylor good luck with his three children he has today. Maybe they could even take a hiatus from the “adult contemporary” songs they are recording now and go back to recording an old-fashioned Hanson bubblegum single. I think I’m finally ready for it.

Original Article