3 Car Garage - The Indie Recordings '95-'96
The surprise of3 Car Garage, which collects pre-fame recordings by the mighty under-18 trio, isn't in the somewhat rough production, but how well-formed the Hanson aesthetic was before they met song doctors and the Dust Brothers. That production team streamlined "MmmBop" from the perceptibly slower version here; it was the boys, though, who tried their hands at a"Sweet Jane"soundalike ("Stories") and the pomp-rock play of "Day Has Come." Isaac, Taylor, and Zac take everything with such honest enthusiasm, it's clear that they would've set up amps and drums with or without their parents' encouragement. The place to start a Hanson collection is still last year'sMiddle of Nowhere, but these kids'Garagedays are more proof that their millions of fans aren't wrong. --Rickey Wright