Hanson - Midd CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

From Milwaukee." Wanna pick on Hanson for writing immature lyrics and singing formulaic ballads? Wait until they're old enough to know better.

Usher Raymond does it all one way: real slow. Too slow, in fact, to make you even care if he ever gets to first base. For a make-out record produced by slow-jam experts L.A. Reid, Babyface and Jermaine Dupri, "My Way" is all heavy breathing, no payoff. The runaway-hit single "You Make Me Wanna . . . " is one thing: tiptoe love funk with a spare, gangsta air and Usher doing overdubbed ensemble singing like a one-man Blackstreet. But that charm fades out over the rest of the album. Usher's voice lacks the force and nuance to make up for the thin, synthetic quality of the backing tracks. And you know there's a problem with the songwriting when you see the word hook plastered over the choruses in the lyric booklet. If you gotta flaunt it that hard, the hook ain't hard enough in the first place. (RS 776/777)