Huzzah For Hanson!

10 years ago, an album full of the most unapologetically catchy songs I had ever heard was released. The Hanson brothers went from being three fresh-faced kids from Tulsa, Oklahoma to overnight sensations in 1997, riding the indomitable wave of Mmm Bop and subsequent hits Where's The Love and I Will Come To You. On the strength of those well-chosen singles, Hanson became one of the biggest acts on the planet and rendered marginally effeminate features attractive (to 13 year-old girls).

However, the appeal of the band did not lie in the fact that Taylor was dreamy, that the three band members were brothers, that they all possessed magnificent golden manes, or even that they had written undeniably catchy, concise pop songs. What was so compelling about Hanson was that they crafted these songs as mere teenagers. To this day, no radio act has managed to encapsulate youthful exuberance the way the Hanson kids did on Middle of Nowehere and it's hard to imagine anyone ever will.

While it's easy to dwell on the immensely popular singles found on Middle of Nowhere, it's important not to forget the other stellar songs the Hanson siblings put out on this stunning effort. What distinguished Hanson from the countless other mainstream acts out there was their consistency. Middle of Nowhere wasn't an album with three obvious singles and filler; granted, Mmm Bop was just screaming for radio airplay. With that being said, Where's The Love could have just as easily been replaced by Madeline. The infectious chants of "Here we go round again" are as addictive as any other moment on the album and the chorus itself is as memorable as Where's The Love's if not more so.

This goes to show just how polished and surprisingly cohesive this album truly was, with many of the tracks vying for possible single status. While the record does exhibit a taste for disparate genres at times, every song is characterized by this radiant viscidity that holds the songs together while also allowing them room to breathe.

For instance, funk-infused tracks such as Speechless or Look At You clearly break from the radio pop mold with a groovier more soulful sound. However, these songs still contain the group's typically tight musicianship and Taylor's unique timbre which lets listeners know this is the same band.

One song that caught my attention the second it began was Lucy, where Taylor's crisp and dare I say it, impeccable vocals carry the song as he sings of love lost like it's never happened before. Everyone has known and probably lost a proverbial Lucy and while the Hansons have never been the most verbose nor ornate writers, they manage to convey the solitude and regret of a breakup with great flair and emotional precision.

In fact, the simplicity of the writing is what makes Taylor's broken-hearted sentiments so palpable. The Oklahoma boys' grasp of both the euphoria and despair that can come to the young remains unrivaled in the realm of pop music a decade after Middle of Nowhere's release (take that Jojo).

While there are 3 ballads on Middle of Nowhere, the real standout is I Will Come To You, a gorgeous piano-driven masterpiece in which Taylor Hanson attempts to reassure a special someone that he will stand firm and be there rain or shine. This is terrifically precocious on Hanson's part, in that most pop songs written by adolescents usually feature fairly self-centered subject matter. Here we see the Hansons pushing their own envelope and expanding the theme of Middle of Nowhere, transitioning from lovelorn saps to dependable friends. In addition to that, Hanson's keen sense of melody shines through on this track as pleasant piano work and ethereal na-na-na-nas reminiscent of Hey Jude enchant listeners.

I Will Come To You embodies all that is great about Hanson. While it isn't the most musically or lyrically grandiose song one will ever encounter, any established pop act could have released it and it would have still been the centerpiece of that artist's album.

Hanson were the voice of a generation for that one fateful summer, a 3 month period during which I was acquainted with effulgent pop harmonies and charming poetic naivety. While the jubilant and ubiquitous hit Mmm Bop did garner most of Hanson's praise and has to a certain extent defined the band, Middle of Nowhere was so satisfying a listen 10 years after its original release that I have to reiterate Taylor Hanson's words and wonder "Where's The Love"?