Songoftheday 4/5/22 - It's getting colder in this ditch where I lie, I'm feeling older and I'm wondering why...
"This Time Around" - Hanson
from the album This Time Around (2000)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 3
Today's song comes from the pop group Hanson, whose major label debut album Middle Of Nowhere in 1997 had sold millions and spun off three hits with "Where's The Love", the top ten "I Will Come To You", and their #1 breakthrough "MmmBop". With a rabid young record-buying fanbase, their record company, Island, took advantage, quickly spinning off an album of early recording Three Car Garage as well as a holiday album Snowed In, both of which reached the top ten on the Billboard 200 sales tally in America and selling over a million copies each. A concert set the following year, Live At Albertane, made the top-40 on that list and sold a half million as well.
The young brotherly trio - Isaac, Taylor, and Zac, returned in 2000 with their sophomore effort This Time Around. Still not old enough to drink, the siblings' sound did mature a bit, and instead of the Dust Brothers producing, the boys co-produced the set with Stephen Lironi and Mark Hudson (of the Hudson Brothers top-40 pop group of the 1970s). Written by the Hansons, the song is a veiled Christian sermon, wrapped in a watered down version of the rock that the Black Crowes were making a decade earlier. For such a happily vibing song, the lyrics are kind of dark, leading up to allusions to suicide in lyrics like
"I've started feeling like I don't want to fight
Just give in to the given and put out the light"
...right before the money-passing pay-off line of "Then I remember and I know why he died" which is clearly a Jesus reference. Still, the trio is eager and both Isaac and Taylor take turns singing lead, though it's clearly Taylor in charge. It's not produced for kids for certain, and maybe between that and the record company merger shenanigans leaving them high and dry, their fans were possibly quite confused...
"This Time Around" became Hanson's third official (and last overall) top-40 hit on the Hot 100 chart in Billboard magazine in May of 2000, but it only stayed three weeks in the top-40 and a paltry seven weeks altogether (probably after the remaining faithful bought their copies). Internationally, the single went to #13 in Canada and just missed the top-40 in Australia at #42. The This Time Around album, released in May as the single was cresting, reached #13 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a half million copies.
While the title track was the single of choice in the States, The trio put out the song "If Only" to lead the album, where it did much better, making the top ten in Spain (#3), Belgium (#8W/#47F), Finland (#8), Italy (#9), and Australia (#9), and hit #15 in the UK.
After a fight to break free from their label, Hanson went indie three years later and started their own label 3CG. Their first emancipated album, Underneath, rose to #25 on the Billboard 200 in 2004. While American radio ignored the set, the trio managed to return to the top ten on the British Singles chart with "Penny & Me", and landed in the top-40 there with follow-up "Lost Without Each Other".
With 2007's The Walk album, Hanson had their last minor hit in the UK with "Go" (#44), In 2013, they popped back on American radio with the single "Get The Girl Back", which peaked at #39 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format chart. The album it was on, Anthem, spent a week on the Billboard 200 at #22.
Since then, the group has released three more studio albums, with their second holiday release Finally It's Christmas their last chart appearance on the Billboard 200 at #81. Their most recent record, Against The World, came out in 2021. But sadly, as a lot of things in this era become ruined for our generation, they (well at least two of them) became full-fledged right-wing nutzoids, with Zac posting homophobic and racist content online as well as Isaac being vocal about the "tyranny" of COVID restrictions, both half-heartingly retracting themselves later. Whatever dudes.
(7/10)
(Click below to see the rest of he post)
Next up, live in concert at the Fillmore that same year...
and lastly, an stripped down take from their Underneath Acoustic live album in 2003...
Up tomorrow: Nawlins rap supergroup shimmies into the charts.
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