ICYMI TUNES // Hanson – Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’
I’m 100% obsessed with Spotify. If you could hook me up to an IV that continuously drips/streams music into my body, I’d say “let’s do it.”
I’ll start listening to Spotify on any given stroll. It quickly evolves into me stomping along, pretending I’m in a music video (I currently have a recurring role in “This is Gospel” by Panic! At The Disco). However, this IV stops when it comes to my car. For a bunch of boring reasons, I can’t stream in my car and ultimately I refuse to buy accessories that will enable it.
In turn, I listen to the radio (shout-out to KROQ in LA and The Spectrum on Sirius what-whaaaat) and CDs. Many have discarded and sold their scratched up CDs of yesteryear, but I’m the only person I know whose collection is still growing. Sometimes I think of it as a party trick for my passengers. I’m like “flip through my CDs I’ve kept since middle school. See Tragic Kingdom? That’s my first and I still got it.” Like a dad’s bad jokes, I’m sure no one else is quite as amused as me.
Anyway, after flipping past Harry Styles’ latest melodramatic single on three simultaneous stations the other day, I was in dire need of a jolt of pure, bountiful happiness. I ditched the radio, turned to my trusty CD trove and flipped through to an old faithful from 2010 – Hanson’s Shout It Out.
Yup, Hanson. While some may scratch their head and say “MMMBop?” I think of when I first saw them live and fell in love with their sound on the Shout It Out Tour, a sound that progressed through each album after the 1997 smash single. My candidate to win you over to Hanson fandom (or, at the very least, Hanson respect) is the single “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin.'”
As the lead single from Shout It Out, the song did get coverage but not much radio play, and that’s why I want to shine a beacon of light on this burst of energy. The musicality of “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin'” pays ode to funk and soul with a twist of pop. While the song stands out on its own, the video jives just as well. Watch it to see the brothers dance with Weird Al on tambourine, all while remaking scenes from the 1980 Blues Brothers film. Mirroring the dance sequences to Blues Brothers’ “Shake a Tail Feather,” everyone forms a crowd in the street, dancing joyfully to loose choreography. This time, they’re all kissing off whatever girl was “getting around.” That’s an added bonus of the track: while the big band sound is fun, once you’ve re-listened twenty or so times the lyrics set in. Then you realize it’s a complete diss track, Hanson-style.
Hanson is setting out this summer on the Middle of Everywhere 25th Anniversary Tour, which they’re billing as “25 years of music in one night.” Buy tickets here. Also, fun fact, the guys have a beer company that brews its own line of craft beer, Mmmhops. Check it out here.