Hanson - Snowed In

Since the early days of pop music history, recording a Christmas album has been an obligatory eventuality for many artists. It's odd, however, to put out a Christmas CD as a sophomore recorded effort, which is what those teen sensations Hanson have done with their album "Snowed In." It's a move clearly designed to cash in on Hanson's recent popularity, since presumably their label Mercury Records doesn't have much faith in the act's staying power on the pop scene. Also, a few hot summer singles can mean big bucks come the holiday season, so new product from the trio can only spike the profits even higher.

As a marketing strategy, "Snowed In" is just the kind of blood-sucking brilliance we've come to expect from the major labels. But as artistic product, Hanson's latest is somewhat of a disappointment after the shimmering pop brilliance of "Middle of Nowhere." Part of the blame must fall on the production team. Instead of calling on outside help from Stephen Lironi and the ultra-hot Dust Brothers as they did on "Middle of Nowhere," Hanson share co-production credit on "Snowed In" with Mark Hudson, as well as taking on the extra title of "executive producer."

Unfortunately, Hanson and Hudson (they should start a law firm with those names) fail to capture the production magic of the debut Hanson album. Instead of isolating each instrumental sound and building a tight song from the pieces, each part of the song is muddied together into what at times is an incomprehensible mess. The result seems to be an attempt at reproducing the classic Spector "Wall of Sound," but minus the echoing space at the upper end of the sound spectrum, which gave his songs the impression of arriving at the listener's ear from some incomprehensible pop void. The echoing space in Spector's work also prevented the sound from assaulting the listener, which is what the sound on "Snowed In" often does. It doesn't help that most songs seem to have too much crammed into the accompaniment, leaving little space for vocals or even just free air. Because there's too much in the arrangements and the pieces are muddied together, some songs become nothing more than plodding, throbbing pools of noise. More effort should have been made to extricate pieces from the musical mudpile, or to reduce arrangements so that the harmonies of the Hanson boys could stand out from the song's instrumental tracks.

Another weakness of "Snowed In" is the abundance of Christmas song covers, some of which are poorly chosen. Hanson was smart on their debut album to stick with songs that sounded believable as sung by teenage boys, but here they stray into areas which lie beyond their range of believability. The opening tune, a cover of Otis Redding's "Merry Christmas Baby," is cute but misses the underlying grit which Redding and subsequent readings have given it. The epic Spector classic "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" loses all of its emotional intensity in the hands of young Taylor Hanson. How can he hope to measure up to the desperation of U2's Bono, or the pleading power of Darlene Love on the original track?

Other choices are surer bets for the boys, if a bit obvious. Their covers of the Beach Boys' "Little Saint Nick" and Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run" are fun and harmless, with the latter boasting some fantastic guitar and piano solos. The Jackson Five holiday tune "What Christmas Means to Me" is perhaps the most inspired cover choice on the album, and is tackled with enthusiasm and verve by lead vocalist Zachary Hanson. As for the original tunes, they mostly come off as disappointing filler, with only the clever "Everybody Knows the Claus" capturing any of the excitement of previous Hanson compositions. Both "At Christmas" and "Christmas Time" are sappy and uninventive bits of meaningless pop drivel, with no real emotional commitment in them at all. Perhaps the boys would have been better served sticking solely to well-chosen cover songs instead of dipping into their trove of self-composed Christmas tunes.

Being a Christmas album, Hanson's "Snowed In" will more than likely only be spun during the final six to eight weeks of each year, which is about what it deserves. It's a solid Christmas album, but as the sophomore effort from Hanson it falls short of the high standards and true pop brilliance of "Middle of Nowhere." Maybe it was rushed together to cash in on the Christmas lists of pre-teenage girls around the world, or maybe it's more of a true creative misstep. Either way, the stakes will only be raised a few notches higher for Hanson when they enter the studio to produce their third effort. They can only hope that the goodwill of the holiday season will erase any feelings of disappointment from their fans and admirers.