Of all the guilty pleasures in my collection, the one that requires the most self-confidence for me to stand up and admit to loving is definitely Hanson’s This Time Around.
Now, to be honest, I reject the concept of guilty pleasures. If I like something, I like it… no guilt involved. I think what that phrase really implies is a degree of shame because you like something that “cool” people really shouldn’t like. But I reject that concept as well, because the way I see it, if you reject this album because of the age and appearance of the people who wrote and performed it, that betrays how uncool you really are.
Of course one can reject the album on its merits, no question. If power pop isn’t your thing, Hanson definitely isn’t your thing. But fans of, say, Fountains of Wayne or Barenaked Ladies who dismiss Hanson sight unseen (or sound unheard?) are being disingenuous.
I was pleasantly surprised recently to learn that Taylor Hanson (by far the shining star of this band) is good friends with Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger and the two joined forces to create a power pop group called Tinted Windows (along with members of Smashing Pumpkins and Cheap Trick). I have their debut album and will review it one of these days, but my first impression is that it’s a fun listen but not as good as any Fountains of Wayne album or Hanson’s This Time Around.
This title track is a nicely written and performed rocker about martyrdom and seizing the day. I like the twist on the phrase (and concept) “next time around.”
I’m feeling older and I’m wondering why
I heard they told her it was tell and live or die
I didn’t know her but I know why she lied
I didn’t know her but I know why she died
You can’t say I didn’t give it
I won’t wait another minute
We’re on our way this time around
You can’t say I didn’t give it
I won’t wait another minute
We’re on our way this time around
And we won’t go down
I heard them say that dreams should stay in your head
Well I feel ashamed of the things that I’ve said
Put on these chains and you can live a free life
Well I’d rather bleed just to know why I die
And we won’t go down
All I know is that fear has got to go
This time around
I’ve started feeling like I don’t want to fight
Give in to the given and put out the light
Cannons a’blazing shower these moonlit skies
Then I remember and I know why he died
Do you know why I die?
Meet Me In Montauk 
Thank you for reminding me how much I love this album. Where’s my iPod?
I don’t much like the song you feature today, but I know very little about or of Hanson. As for guilty pleasures, I always think of them as being the kind of music/tv show/movie/book you imagine isn’t as enriching to your soul and/or intellect as what you should be listening to/viewing/reading, but you feel like partaking just the same. For me, American Idol might fall into that category (as I watch, listen, and read Michael Slezak’s blogs incessantly, that one show can make me feel guilty in multiple medium at once 🙂
When you realize you could be listening to Chopin (or Costello or Mitchell or so on), but instead you’re listening to Hanson, you cop to enjoying a guilty pleasure. No?
I don’t see it that way. That would also mean Iron Man or Star Trek are guilty pleasures because you could be watching Schindler’s List instead. And I wouldn’t classify either of those films as guilty pleasures by any means.
Lots of great art isn’t enriching to your soul or intellect… that definition pretty much relegates the entire comedy genre to guilty pleasure.
My definition of guilty pleasure is something that is not very good according to common consensus or whatever passes for an objective measure in popular criticism, but you enjoy it anyway.
I think both Amy’s and Clay’s definition of “guilty pleasure” can be melded together, since, typically an artistic work that is dismissed by critics is predicated on the notion that the work is empty of deeper value.
I have a few guilty pleasures, mostly because I do listen to Radio Disney with the kids and watch American Idol. Last summer, while we were on our driving tour, Radio Disney kept playing Vanessa Hudgins’ Sneakernight, and I found myself strangely addicted to it. I would later read in EW that the song and album were considered mediocre, but what did I care? As far as I was concerned, Vanessa could keep goin’ and goin’ and goin’… Here, take a listen.
As for this song, it doesn’t do anything for me, nor does anything else I have heard from Hanson, but you just keep right on listening to it, particualry because you and Alex have so few artists that you can both enjoy together. (Oh, and I’ll keep making fun of you, but you can now make fun of me for loving Sneakernight:))
YouTube has yanked Sneakernight, but I can attest to Dana’s love for the song – and for how difficult it is to get out of your head 🙂 I do think it’s a combination of the two factors (mediocrity and lack of substance) that makes something a guilty pleasure. Nobody views Annie Hall as a guilty pleasure, though it is a romantic comedy. The obvious quality of that film coupled with some big ideas make it a worthy film to adore. If the film you keep coming back to Happy Gilmore as the film you can’t get enough of, on the other hand, you likely have to cop to having a guilty pleasure.
Odd, I had just put a link to the youtube page. I didn’t embed. How did it put up the video? Clay, maybe you can just change it back to a link?
But where is the substance in Iron Man or Star Trek, to use my other examples? Or in most of The Beatles’ early work? There are definitely shallow works of art that are still most definitely works of art.
This is Spinal Tap doesn’t need big ideas to not be a guilty pleasure.
That’s why I fall back on the definition that relies on perceived quality. After all, Patch Adams is surely a guilty pleasure for somebody, not because it doesn’t aspire to great meaning (I think it does) but because most people think it sucks.
This Hanson album, incidentally, was well-reviewed. If Hanson is considered a guilty pleasure I think it’s because they were a trio of precocious tow-headed twerps whose very appearance made you want to slap them around. I know that’s how I felt about them before reading great things about this album.
I agree, that ‘Sneakernight’ is pretty catchy (fixed the link up above). And it doesn’t hurt to look at Miss Hudgens in the video, either.
If Hanson was admired by the critics, then you are undermining your own thesis. So I don’t think there’s anything “incidental” about it.
As I said, it’s a combination of questionable artistic merit and lack of substance that creates the perfect guilty pleasure in my mind. Patch Adams would be a strange guilty pleasure, as its failed attempt to convey a BIG message makes it hardly pleasurable. Wild Things, on the other hand, or The CuttingEdge, or High School Musical, or Speed (though I think that got good reviews) or any number of other films that are enjoyable despite perhaps not earning the best reviews or attempting to be ABOUT something would be ideal examples.
I suppose I am contradicting myself. In the original post, I suggested a guilty pleasure is something you like despite it not being “cool” to like it. And I do think that applies in this particular case. But the more I ponder it, I don’t think that definition applies to guilty pleasures. This, perhaps, is more of an ’embarrassed pleasure.’
Another example of an embarrassed pleasure, depending on the circles you move in, is Titanic. It was critically acclaimed and certainly popular, but most hip film nerds these days decry it as overblown sap.
As for guily pleasures, it was Dana who first suggested the marriage of our two definitions (poor critical response plus lack of substance) and I think he’s pretty close. But I do think there are “serious” films that people enjoy as guilty pleasures.
Okay, so I think we can now agree that Hanson is not a guilty pleasure because they received critical praise, as did Iron Man and Star Trek. The true guilty pleasure is the work that receives mediocre to poor reviews from critics, and probably also has little social import, but you love it nonetheless.
A Twinkie is a guilty pleasure, while an eclair from a fine well regarded French bakery would not be. Both are empty calories at the end of the day (as is Hanson, Iron Man, etc.) But the true guilty pleasure is still the twinkie.
So, Clay, let’s hear about your real guilty pleasure by the combined definition. What critically disregarded work do you love? (Not like, or think critics were too hard on, but actually LOVE).
I was going to say Christina Aguilera’s Back to Basics album, but that’s another case of a CD I bought because it did receive critical praise.
Might have to reach back to Hootie and the Blowfish, although “love” is probably too strong a word there… but I do have great associations with and appreciation for their first album.
Alex and I just concluded that reality television is probably the best example of a guilty pleasure. So I would say Survivor, which I do love (season finale tonight!), is my best example.
Is Survivor critically panned? Was Hootie panned? Their album got 4 1/2 stars out of 5 on http://www.allmusic.com.
Neither seems like such a guilty pleasure. Now, if you were into Celebrity Rehab, THAT might qualify.
I’m still thinking that you don’t have guilty pleasures because, by and large, you watch and listen to things that are critically well received.
I guess you’re right. I don’t really seek out new music unless I hear good word of mouth (including critical reception). How about you? Any true guilty pleasures in your lineup?
By “you,” I’m assuming you’re addressing Dana, but I’ll pop in just the same 😛
First, the Titanic example you give falls into yet another category – that of the backlash. Often a film/ tv show/ musical artist is appreciated and enjoyed by the very “hip ‘film’ (or tv/music) nerds” who will later distance themselves from the work once it is embraced by what they consider too many people. If they can’t add to their hip cred by being in the minority of those who appreciate said film, then they will deem it unworthy of such appreciation in the first place. I recall watching that happen with Titanic and having a conversation with a very intelligent student, who admitted that he thought less of the film when he realized the jock sitting next to him was enjoying and admiring it.
That backlash affects everything from Harry Potter (both books and films) to The Office (once it started gaining viewers and “losing…. something”) to John Mayer. Once popularity registers, “hipsters” go elsewhere. I know I avoided (and disparaged) American Idol in part because it was this HUGE popular thing. This despite the fact that I had never seen one minute of footage from the show. It was Prince’s involvement in the season finale, along with an intriguing article in Entertainment Weekly, that finally piqued my interest and got me to think I should check it out for myself.
Three seasons later, I can say that I am proudly not a “hip tv nerd,” when it comes to my enjoyment/adoration of American Idol, backlash be damned. Is it quality? Often, yes it is. Is it critically praised? I haven’t the foggiest idea. Is it a guilty pleasure? I think so. I like Dana’s dessert analogy and think AI is definitely more of twinkie than an eclair, while a show such as Lost requires advanced degrees to even understand Don Jensen’s commentary. No empty calories there.
Meanwhile, how ironic that Hanson gets to prompt so many comments 🙂
btw, I also think that “guilty pleasure” suggests repeated appreciation, thus a film such as The Cutting Edge, which I mentioned in an earlier comment, can’t truly apply. I don’t own it and haven’t seen it for years, so can it be a guilty pleasure? I don’t think so. Instead, it needs to be the kind of show/music/film which you regularly visit. Facebook might apply 🙂 At least the “flair” application on FB. My musical guilty pleasures probably do come from the kids’ musical tastes,as I so rarely listen to my own music that when I do it’s nothing that inspires guilt. I can sing along with most HSM songs, and I definitely feel a little guilty about that 🙂
I agree on both counts. First, the backlash factor definitely exists for films such as Titanic and even Slumdog Millionaire already this year.
And yes, repeated viewings/listening are required for something to be a guilty pleasure. I think about The Notebook, which did achieve some critical success so it’s not a perfect fit, but I love to pull that off the shelf every several months.
AI is certainly a guilty pleasure for our family. I would say Star Trek: The Original Series was a guilty pleasure for years, as was Happy Days, The Love Boat, I Dream of Jeanie, Bewitched, etc… Now, would I really watch all those now or say I love them now? Maybe not, but we recently rediscovered Happy Days with the kids, and I am have Jeanie and Bewitched on the DVR queue, so we’ll see how they hold up. Still can’t get the kids into Star Trek, though I keep trying.
As for music, I’m not sure if I would ever leave on any of the Radio Disney songs if I weren’t with the kids–although Sneakernight and some of the Hannah Montana songs come close:) From my own childhood, of course, I have fond memories of Journey and Huey Lewis, to name a few artists who I don’t recall receiving much love from critics.
In movies, I probably have a fair number of guilty pleasures–Blues Brothers, Groundhog Day (if indeed it was as critically panned as rotten tomatoes suggests) and Star Trek II (not sure what critics thought of that one) to name a few.
What critic in his right mind would pan Groundhog Day? Craziness! Clearly we watched much more tv when we were younger than we do now 🙂 Of the shows we regularly watch, only AI would qualify. The others (Lost, 24, Entourage, FNL, Daily Show and Colbert) are all critically lauded and embraced by hipster nerds 🙂 While Dana has already seen the new Star Trek film twice, and would have regardless of whether it had earned the stellar reviews it has, the fact that it is considered a great movie doesn’t allow it to qualify. I would have run out to see Ghosts of Girlfriend past in the old days, but now I’m far more particular (and have to deal with a stubborn movie partner) about where I’ll plop down by ten bucks, so cheesy romantic comedies as a genre might apply, but I see far fewer of those than open in a given year. So… I’m back to American Idol 🙂 Season finale this Tuesday, by the way. ADAM vs, KRIS. Be there for the showdown!
I don’t know how it was received when it first came out, but I often see Groundhog Day listed as one of the all-time great comedies and one of the best films of its decade. Could be it’s one of those that found its critical reputation in retrospect.