My Analysis Of "Three Car Garage"
Wow. I finally have the new CD. Well, here I'm gonna write what I thought of the songs and compare them to MON. (Any negative-seeming comments are just "constructive criticism.")
* I liked the depth of the songs - even if some of the sound wasn't the best, the lyrics were amazingly meaningful. Yes, some of the lyrics were a little too mature for such young kids to be singing, such as "It all started on 77th street/ When we were just 13," or "'Cause I'm only a man/ Flawed in so many ways you see." But forgetting their ages at the time (10, 12, 15), the lyrics were worthwhile.
* The CD itself wasn't so exciting. MON had the Hanson symbol, Snowed In had them lying around the CD, but this one is just black with an orange border. At least the cover and case were pretty cool.
* Not so many pictures on this one, but they're cool ones. I know Snowed In bothered me cuz they were all the same, and some of the ones on MON weren't so clear.
* The version of "Thinking of You" on 3CG is four seconds shorter than it is on MON, and they've polished it up, but it was still enjoyable in the original version.
* It was cool to hear the original "MMMBop", but it could've been better. First, if you listen real carefully at the beginning, someone (Ike?) says, "We're recording." Also, they speed up in some parts and slow down in others. (That's gotta be Zac having a bad day on the drums.) They kept the tempo much more constant on MON. This version is 42 seconds longer, probably because they repeat part of the beginning ("So hold onto the ones who really care...") later in the song. They seem to do better in the parts without much music on this one.
* "With You In Your Dreams" was very good, 19 seconds longer than on MON. The major difference was a switch in one of the lines - they used "sigh" to rhyme with "cry" instead of "goodbye". It sounded a little strange to hear them say "Don't sigh/I'm by your side". I liked the ending even better, though, and you should know that I was very...into the ending on MON.
* My favorite song would have to be "Soldier", a song about a one-legged tin soldier with a bout of bad luck...it's adorable.
* "Pictures" was extremely short (2:13), while "Soldier" was slightly long (6:20). And "Surely As The Sun" had only 9 lines, repeated in different orders for 5 minutes and 39 seconds. But that's okay, they're all cool anyways.
* Half of the song "Sometimes" was "Sha na na na..." I suppose I shouldn't complain, considering what most of "MMMBop" is...
* Ike lead-sings most of the CD, which isn't a bad thing. He also has a cool voice, contrary to popular belief. Tay and Zac had squeaky, high-pitched voices on this album, so it was a good choice to have Isaac lead. Also, since his voice had already changed, they can still perform most of the songs. ("Mmmbop" hasn't been the same since Tay's voice went...)
Well, all in all, it was a good CD. I liked hearing Tay with a high voice again. Although it's not so bad now... For anyone out there who might, for some remote reason, not agree that this is an awesome CD, just remember that they did it all on their own, at a very young age, in a garage somewhere in Tulsa. When you consider that, hopefully you'll see it as the piece of art it is. Well, see ya all later!
May 12, 1998
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