Album Review: Jonas Brothers – Greetings From Your Hometown
2 min read
At this point in their career, the Jonas Brothers need little introduction. With a plethora of hit songs both together and separately and nearly three decades in as a trio, they’ve managed to not only retain their original Disney audience, but grow with them. This year’s Greetings From Your Home Town is no exception, the third in their comeback saga that began in 2019.
Opener I Can’t Lose is a bright and punchy opener. The falsetto cries of the title and the catchy guitar lines, along with the singalong bridge, make it a perfect starter to the record. Tables takes an 80s, soft rock aesthetic and plays with it. Glittery synths, a tried and tested but hooky melody, and an infectious mid-tempo groove make the track a memorable inclusion. Lose Me To Heaven has an analogue quality in its sounds that’s reminiscent of early 80s Bruce Springsteen, while No Time To Talk brings things forward musically, whilst also cleverly injecting the melody Bee Gees hit Stayin’ Alive into the chorus. It’s a refreshing take on the recent ‘new song from old song’ trend.
Loved You Better and title track Greetings From Your Hometown both include features from Dean Lewis and Switchfoot respectively. The former is an out an out love-sick ballad, Dean’s voice soaring above the instrumentation, while the latter is peppy pop tune with an eerily familiar guitar motif throughout that calls back to Sam Fender’s Seventeen Going Under. Heat Of The Moment and Bully feature groovy guitars and danceable drums, both incredibly enjoyable and memorable. The two songs that close out the album before Marshmello’s Slow Motion, Lucky and Mirror to the Sky, perfectly mirror each other – no pun intended. The former is a beautifully touching acoustic ballad that would leave any listener swooning, while the latter is a foot-stomping folk-pop banger.
While the album isn’t breaking any boundaries, Greeting From Your Hometown is a well-crafted collection of songs, bound together by the brother’s intertwining voices. All three featured artists also do their best with the group, but it’s Dean Lewis that stands out from the rest. Overall, this is a great record that fans will no doubt enjoy, and a great excuses to see the band live.
Writer and Musician, Ryan Bulbeck has been published with a number of online publications, and has worked with a myriad of great artists, both as a performer, and as a producer. His most recent band The 295 are still active, playing shows around the UK.
