The Best of Hanson: Live and Electric [Bonus Tracks]

Performer: Hanson
Producer: Hanson; Hanson
Distributor: Alternative Dis. Alliance

Notes: Personnel: Isaac Hanson (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Taylor Hanson (vocals, harmonica, piano, organ, string synthesizer, percussion); Zachary Hanson (vocals, drums); Aaron Kaplan (electric guitar, organ). Audio Mixer: Steve Ripley. Recording information: Palais Theatre. Directors: Josh Logue; Chris Applebaum. Editor: Ashley Greyson. Hanson sank below the popular radar after their much-touted smash hit single "MMM Bop" took the pop world by storm in 1997. But the reception on this live album recorded on their 2004 world tour proves the onetime teenyboppers are back with a vengeance. The band up the credibility stakes with their version of Radiohead's "Optimistic," and demonstrate their maturing musicality with the scorching, barbed opus "Rock N Roll Razorblade," but most of the highlights come from selections from their 2004 UNDERNEATH album, with both "Strong Enough to Break" and the infectious "Penny and Me" proving that they still know how to oil the hit machine. The Best of Hanson: Live and Electric is not a compilation; it's a live album, capturing the band on their supporting tour for their 2004 album Underneath. It's not their first live album -- about a year and a half after their 1997 major-label debut, they released Live from Albertane, which was a little fast for a live record, but it does illustrate just how crazy Hanson mania was in the late '90s. Here in 2005, Hanson not only have a larger repertoire to draw from, but they're a different band: they're older, stronger, road-tested, and tougher. They're a mature band now, usually for better, but sometimes for worse, as in on their opening gambit of covering Radiohead's crawling "Optimistic." It's a move that practically begs for the band to be taken seriously, to not be thought of as teen pop sensation, and the self-consciousness of the cover is awkward. But that's the only false note on an album that's tight, lean, and quite entertaining. Every song here, whether it's a newer tune or their old hits "Where's the Love" and "MMM Bop," is given an arrangement that is simultaneously stripped down and opened up, giving the trio -- augmented by Pete Griffin on bass and Aaron Kaplan on electric guitar -- plenty of space to jam. In a way, this is as much as a throwback to the era of late-'70s live albums as their first records were a throwback to late-'60s/early-'70s bubblegum: there just aren't many live albums any more that sound like a band in concert, revealing a different side of the band, one where the songs seem to gain strength in a live setting. That's not to say that this is the second coming of Frampton Comes Alive! or, even better, Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous, but this is nevertheless a very good live album that will certainly satisfy hardcore fans and, if given a chance, could change the minds of some skeptics. [The Best of Hanson: Live and Electric was also released in an edition with a bonus DVD containing three music videos from the Underneath album, two new live videos, and a trailer for the "Strong Enough to Break" documentary.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

With their unavoidably catchy 1997 smash "MMMBop," family pop act Hanson kept the bubblegum torch lit for a new generation of teenyboppers and sweet-toothed pop fans. Like the disposable, sugary classics that came before it, "MMM Bop" was not to be questioned, it was to be hummed. The three brothers released several albums in the decade following that hit, all of which performed respectably on the charts and showed an increasing musical maturity. Still, while they're not one-hit-wonders in the true sense of the term, Hanson will forever be remembered for that delicious piece of pop-music candy called "MMMBop."

Click Here for Shipping Options and Policies

Shipping or Dimension weight in pounds: 0.25