Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Jonas Brothers, Universal Music 2019.
It’s been some time since Jonas Brothers have released new material, six years in fact, so you could say that their new release has been eagerly awaited by their legion of loyal fans.
The first single from Happiness Begins, Sucker, debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number 1 on the ARIA singles chart marking the first #1 for the band and the first #1 debut from a group this century.
The follow-up single, Cool, is following closely behind which augers well for the album.
This album represents a change in direction for the band.
Its sound has been evolving over the last 10 years, however their six-year hiatus led to a complete re-think of their approach.
This period has been captured in the newly released documentary, Chasing Happiness, which is available via Amazon Prime Videos, and the musical transformation is reflected in Happiness Begins.
A new beginning needs a new team and the brothers employed the services of a production team that was comprised of Grammy Award winning songwriter, producer, and lead singer of the multi-platinum band OneRepublic, Ryan Tedder, with additional production from Shellback on Only Human and Greg Kurstin on I Believe and Every Single Time.
The press release for the album sums up the Brother’s response to their production team and new approach. “We’ve been to the year 3000. Not much has changed but they live underwater.”
In fact quite a lot has changed.
Their new sound is entirely modern and the production is remarkable crisp.
There are still elements of the old Jonas Brothers in songs like Used To Be but overall their songs have lost a lot of their country rock feel and taken on a new electro-pop groove built around intricate rhythmic patterns that hook the listener in.
After a documentary and new album the band’s reinvention is continuing through their up-coming memoir which will be released in November this year.
