This Time Around

It all adds up to a collection that successfully sets Hanson apart from the current teen-pop phenomenon that it helped start -- at least from a creative perspective.

This Time Around scores with more sophisticated harmonies and storytelling.

The disc doesn't just contain one or two Top 40 hits, but rather a proliferation of truly excellent songs.

The trio's desire to grow is less problematic than what they want to grow into--a preternaturally stodgy, somewhat conservative old-school pop-R&B band.

That's right, we're talking stadium rock.

Hanson's style of maturity is old-fashioned classic rock, which they attack with the zest of kids taking their first cruise down the strip in the old man's vintage Mustang. Without the Dust Brothers helping at the controls, This Time Around has more rock and less funk than Middle of Nowhere, showing off Hanson's deepened harmonies, their expanding instrumental prowess and Taylor's increasingly sexy, bluesy growl.

Make no mistake: This album represents a small step for a band, not a giant leap for mankind. But it is energetic, entertaining and several polymer configurations less plastic than the teenybopper product currently being manufactured in Orlando and elsewhere.