Meme: 30 Days of Hanson - Day 17 (Favourite)

[armanya]

 Day 17: Favorite track on This Time Around

Oh wow. I think this is the one album I find it hardest to pick a favourite from... I think right now, it's In the City... I don't know, there is something about hearing Tay sing "little pretty" that gets me! And I always love it when they get a little edgy. 

But I also loooveee...

And I love the lyrics to Sure About It:

Don't make me pick just one, please?! It's suck a brilliant and varied album with lots of really interesting lyrics - it's impossible to have a fav on this one! 

Also I just died rewatching the Sure About it Clip. I had kinda forgotten about Taylor's absolutely killer smile at the start there.

Anyway, off to bed. And really looking forward to tomorrows! This one is gonna be FUN. :D

30 Days of Hanson
Day 01: Your favorite brother
Day 02: Your favorite song
Day 03: Your favorite award that Hanson has won
Day 04: Your favorite radio/video interview
Day 05: Your favorite album
Day 06: Favorite picture of Isaac
Day 07: Favorite picture of Taylor
Day 08: Favorite picture of Zac
Day 08: Most hilarious FUTY
Day 09: Favorite music video
Day 10: Best collaboration between Hanson & another artist
Day 11: A picture of the boys that makes you smile
Day 12: Your favorite icon
Day 13: Favorite track on Middle of Nowhere
Day 14: Hottest magazine photoshoot
Day 15: Favorite live performance
Day 16: A picture where all 3 of them look really good
Day 17: Favorite track on This Time Around
Day 18: A picture that makes you go "WTF?"
Day 19: Favorite of Taylor's hairstyles
Day 20: Favorite of Isaac's hairstyles
Day 21: Favorite of Zac's hairstyles
Day 22: Favorite track on Underneath
Day 23: Most fashionable Taylor outfit
Day 24: Goofiest Zac Moment
Day 25: Nerdiest Isaac Moment
Day 26: Favorite track on The Walk
Day 27: Most hilarious LIVESTREAM
Day 28: Best Hanson quote
Day 29: Favorite TV appearance
Day 30: Favorite track on Shout it Out

Comments

[itzmagik.livejournal.com]

I noticed "Love Song" as your "Current Music:" - always loved the basic sweetness of that track. I remember rushing out to buy the "This Time Around" single, before the album was available, and "Love Song" was on that single, so it was hearing the first two new tracks. I remember being struck by how mature and different "Love Song" was from a musical texture perspective from anything on "Middle of Nowhere" (and "Snowed In", "Live From Albertane" and "3 Car Garage", for that matter - but I didn't really "count" those, because I thought "Snowed In" was a quickie Christmas album for bucks, "Live From Albertane" was obviously the same tunes, just live, and "3 Car Garage" was the historical stuff). There's some beautiful guitar stuff and, I think, marimba (of all instruments)/or synth-patch marimba anyway. It's also cool that we see a little bit of Isaac trying it out as an idea on the "LFA" video.

A guy fan around the time put out a song "DSL About It" or something, to the tune of "Sure About It". It's cute. There's also a demo of "If Only" where it's Isaac on lead vocals (alas, I've never been able to find more than the first 30 seconds of it). I think he was going to sing it originally before it became a Tay song.

I really think of "TTA" as the legitimate follow-up to "MON". And it expands their canvas and ambitions beautifully.

[vagarical.livejournal.com]

I really love Love Song as well. :) The musical arrangement in that song is absolutely gorgeous and Ike's vocals are perfect for it. The only thing I dislike is that the drums are a tad bit... well, "poppy" for my liking - I like it when drums have a more organic sound to them... drums should go thud in my world. :D Anyway, I normally love the drums in Hanson tracks (I remember reading somewhere that Zac has a similar view to mine on how he likes drums to sound so I guess this is why!), but in Love Song they don't really have that.

But otherwise, gorgeous, gorgeous song!

I like listening back to TTA these days, I think you can really hear a shift from MON which I am going to guess they didn't have that much of a say in the production of - it's still them but you can see how they matured in their music between MON and TTA. I think it's also quite obvious that their later records seem to continue in a very similar direction to TTA, which makes it even more obvious that they were allowed to mature naturally as songwriters and musicians and not pushed in certain directions.

And TTA is definitely the follow up to MON. Much as I love Snowed In and 3CG, they are hardly legitimate albums.

[itzmagik.livejournal.com]

Ah, someone who appreciates the fine art and possibilities of drum sounds on recordings! It's such a contentious issue amongst sound engineers, producers and, well obviously, drummers! I always read about such perfectionists in the studio who labor so long experimenting with different drum tunings, damping/mufflings, plexiglass shields, mic placement/distance, reverb, etc. to capture that elusive "perfect" drum sound. I love this "pursuit of purity" if you know what I mean, I've heard more than one old-school producer say the quest for that "perfect" drum sound has been a career-long goal.

Oh yes, like you, I would suggest that Zac's drum sound aesthetic is pretty agreeable to my ears, too. I've never had a problem with how his drums sound on record or live.

Most recently I fell in love with his punchy live drum sound on "Fire On The Mountain". Check out 2:08 forward below! To my ears, mixed prominently among the other instruments, and a nice sound (not too boomy, not that dry - although admittedly maybe a little drier than some would like (maybe you?); I think it works well for the song), and a dead-simple appealing but great groove that Zac is laying down there pretty solidly. Man, to have that isolated drum track on its own.

I didn't mind the "Love Song" drums, and here's why; I recognized they were particularly "processed", like you say, more pop than rock, but it brought a bit of a sheen of "production" to that track which I thought it needed. The textures are beautiful, but it's a slow song and might seem old-fashioned or corny if it was such a straight-ahead performance that it was like capturing somebody who did it completely live and acoustic at a coffee house or something. I loved the little production touches like that synth-marimba bouncing between left and right channels, and I thought the drums "fit" that soundscape okay in terms of the sonic world the producer was trying to create. But I can completely see why you'd be put off by them, and I think these work for the song but I'd want them different, like you, probably in contexts for different songs.

Yeah, "TTA" is a lovely transitional album on the path to their sound evolving. I can really never listen to "Snowed In", actually - I feel it sort of a "sellout", a label idea to make some bucks and the guys rushed into the studio to come up with some basic stuff for the fans. There was even an old (h.net I guess it was) video showing some recording session footage and the producer's trying to get Zac into this groove and placing the cymbal crashes and it just feels completely artificial and manipulative, it's so disappointing.

But that's okay, it was what it was. Nobody claimed it was high art. And now I have this great drum sound in "FOTM" to delight my ears. :)