“Shout It Out,” Hanson’s first album in three years, will be released on June 8, but brothers Zac, Taylor and Isaac Hanson are letting you hear the whole thing a week early for free here on Billboard.com. The trio also stopped by recently to talk about the new album and to exclusively perform three of its songs.
“Every record is important,” Taylor Hanson says of “Shout It Out,” “But this one feels like… a reflection not just of right now but a selection of things we’ve been putting in records for the last fifteen years.” And it’s true. While the new album exudes the ease of a veteran band with over a decade of music behind them, it retains elements of the fun, pop-soul tinged sound that helped the guys hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 with “Mmmbop” when they were all under 17 years old.
Recording in Texas, their native Oklahoma, and in L.A., the Hanson brothers produced the 12-track “Shout It Out” themselves and drew inspiration for the video for first single “Thikin’ ‘Bout Somethin’,” from a classic Ray Charles moment in the “The Blues Brothers” film.
Says Issac Hanson, “I think we’re saying that you can have a heart and compassion for others and do good things in your life, and at the same time dance in the street.”