Track Listing

1. Thinking Of You
2. MMMBop
3. Weird
4. Speechless
5. Where's The Love
6. Yearbook
7. Look At You
8. Lucy
9. I Will Come To You
10. A Minute Without You
11. Madeline
12. With You In Your Dreams
13. Untitled
14. Untitled
15. Untitled
16. Untitled
17. Untitled
18. Untitled
19. Untitled
20. Untitled
21. Man From Milwaukee (Garage Mix)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19475 in Music
• Released on: 1997-05-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
After buying into Bush and Alanis Morissette, Hanson is just what we deserve--Silverchair by way of the Partridge Family, the first pretty-boy fake alt rock group that doesn't pretend to be anything but. If only for truth in advertising, Hanson deserves our admiration. But as it happens, Middle of Nowhere, the debut album from Tulsa brothers Isaac, Taylor, and Zachary Hanson, warrants attention for other reasons as well. At their best, as on "MMMBop" or "Thinking of You," Hanson makes perfect '90s bubblegum, Jackson Five vocal interplay offset by slick power pop guitars and sharp hip-hop production care of the Dust Brothers. Even the more questionable material, such as the cheesy ballads "Weird" and "I Will Come to You," is--at worst--music for, about, and by kids sixteen and under. Such songs are not only more palatable coming from a 13-year-old than from a post-grad, given the age of the writers, the lyrics are actually pretty darn sharp. Granted, these lads had help with both the songwriting (including veterans Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil on the weakest track) and instrumentation (a full cast of session men) on Middle of Nowhere. Still, as young writers and musicians with an indisputably authentic three-part harmony, Hanson is as real a band as it needs to be. Real enough, at least, to be a perfect antidote to MTV's other poster boys, Marilyn Manson. --Roni Sarig

Customer Reviews

One of the best pop records of all time...
Before Hanson grew up and had children, before they left the corporate record indursty and went indies, and before they hit puberty, they recorded "Middle of Nowhere", one of the most relentlessly catchy pop records ever produces.

1997 was a year that was the comback for pop. 1997 brought us the Spice Girls, The Backstreet Boys, and of course Hanson! For some, the mention of Hanson will conjure up images of pre-pubescent boys that looked and sounded like girls and will probably induce the desire to slit ones wrist. For others, 1997, the year of Hanson, will always be the best year of their lives. Why such extreme reactions? It is simply because when a band gets so huge like Hanson was, and what makes them endearing is also annoying to many, you are bound to have such extreme reactions.

What made Hanson special and worthy of such love or hatred? It was their unique ability to write pop songs that you would never get out of your head. If somebody else had sung them, would they have been so famous? Probably not. The very thing that made "Mmmbop" one of the best pop songs ever written was the fact that it was a song about holding onto what really mattered, sung by an thirteen year old, and was written two years prior making it quite unusual and somewhat profound for what it was.

Was Hanson just a one trick pony? Or did they have other good songs on their record besides "Mmmbop"? The answer is yes. The entire album is full of songs that are so sweet and innocent, and relentlessly catchy that you will never be able to forget "Middle of Nowhere". Songs such as "Weird", "Where's the Love", "With you in Your Dreams", "Yearbook", and "Thinking of You" transcends far above the age of who they were written by. Other songs like "Lucy", "The Man from Albertane", "A Minute Without You", "Madeline", and "Look at You". Part of the endearing quality of the record is the innocence of it. There is no sex, and nothing dirt. A number of the songs are written about love and infatuation, but they are so well-done that they are not as obnoxious as some other pre-pubescent stars in the past.

These are songs that as yoiu listen to them, you can tell that they are uniquely Hanson, no one else could have ever produced them but Hanson. If you have any doubt to the lasting quality of these songs, listen to this record and then listen to the 10th Anniversary accoustic renditions of these songs.

Since recording this album, Hanson has recorded three other official record "This Time Around", "Underneath", and "The Walk". Although none of those records are bad, in fact they are leaps and bounds ahead of most of the music you will find on the market today, none of them come close to touching "Middle of Nowhere" in its timelessness and catchiness. Hanson produces such extreme reactions in people because they are who they are. You will never mistake another band for Hanson, there is no one else who sounds like them, and no one who ever will.

If you hated Hanson back in 1997, chances are you will still hate this record, but it shouldn't hurt too much to give it a second chance, or at least give Hanson a second chance.

God Bless ~Amy

A blast from the past.
I was in junior high when MMMbop came out and like everyone else I thought these three brothers were girls. That damn catchy tune was stuck in my brain for a good six months in 1997. Even though I haven't kept up with their music since, Hanson's debut album Middle of Nowhere was a fun and decent pop album for its time. Songs like Where's The Love?, I Will Come To You, Lucy, With You In Your Dreams, Weird, and Madeline are standouts. Taylor Hanson's vocals are good and even Zac sings on the puppy love track, Lucy. Ah those were the days when kiddie pop ruled the world!

must have
a must have for any hanson fan, old or young they haven't made a bad cd... well except for the christmas one, i'm just not a fan of christmas music tho