Though I spent much of my adolescence swooning over these three blond brothers, and though last year I unabashedly declared their Snowed In to be The Best Christmas Album Ever, I’ve felt aggressively “meh” about Hanson in recent years. When an advance copy of their new album, Shout It Out, arrived at the Paste offices a few weeks ago and emails from their publicist about the new release started popping into my inbox, I could have hardly cared less. And considering that my 14-year-old self could hardly ever decide whether she wanted to marry Taylor Hanson or just write about his band for a magazine, that’s some mighty powerful “meh.”
But then I finally caved and watched the video for “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’,” the lead single from the new record (which comes out June 8). And. Uh. So. I like it. I really really like it. The song itself combines everything the band’s really good at, fusing their early penchant for old radio-friendly rock ‘n’ roll and soul with their spot-on brother-harmonies and ear for hooks. And the video is everything they haven’t exactly been over the last few years—light-hearted, self-skewering, unabashedly goofy. There is a lot of ass-shaking and smarmy record-store clerk doppelgangers and a dancing flashmob. And also, Weird Al Yankovic? Really, the only thing more remarkable than how much I like this video and the song is how the guys managed to dance in those tight, tight pants.