No Go For The JoBros--The Jonas Brothers Should Stick With Cute
When the Jonas Brothers' A
Little Bit Longer album came out last August, I gave it a few listens,
found myself largely unimpressed, and went back to adulthood. Recently though,
I was given a couple chances to reevaluate the stylishly coiffed siblings, as
they played with Stevie Wonder at the Grammy Awards and then performed two
songs on this past weekend's Saturday
Night Live. My opinion hasn't changed.
The main problem isn't the music. Hit songs "Lovebug" and "A Little Bit Longer" are pleasant enough doses of puppy-dog melodic pop. The thing that bugs me about the brothers--21-year-old Kevin, 19-year-old Joe, and 16-year-old Nick--is that they seem so foolishly intent on positioning themselves as a real band and not just Tiger Beat meat. Take the Grammy performance. While they were playing their own "Burnin' Up," with Stevie Wonder helping out on keyboards and the chorus hook, the band sounded fine. That song requires little more than the right amount of pre-pubescent yelping in the vocal in order to get across. But that's not enough for the JoBros. They're serious musicians, the kind who play songs like Stevie Wonder's "Superstition."
Which is just what they did. Unfortunately, "Superstition"
requires two things in order to work: a hard groove, and some grit in the
singing. The New Jersey
siblings proved themselves incapable of providing either. Kevin and Nick's
guitars were little more than nearly inaudible props, as Wonder held down the
funky main riff on clavinet. And hearing Joe and Nick try to scuff up their
virginal vocals was like watching little boys dress up in their father's work
clothes.
The band was equally unconvincing on SNL. Their first song was "Tonight," an upbeat break-up rocker. Kevin and Nick adequately handled the moody, stock new-wave guitar parts, but Joe's lead vocal was almost unlistenable. The thing is, he sounds like a nice kid from New Jersey. But he also seems determined to sound like something more. Whenever he tried to inject some grown-up urgency into his vocals, he instead sounded like he was getting pinched.
Later in the show, "Video Girl" was even worse. This time, to flaunt his versatile musicianship, Nick was playing drums. It sounded like he was playing Rock Band, thwacking away at the kit with no sense of touch or feel. Similarly, Kevin tried to display his chops with a guitar solo that was little more than a bunch of beginner blues licks strung together. Again, the overall effect was of a band trying way too hard.
The guys should take some cues from Taylor Swift. The 19-year-old country-pop star never tries to be more than she is--a sweet, well-adjusted teenager. She writes musically simple songs about high school, falling in and out of love, and her mom. And she does it with tons of heart. When the Jonas Brothers stick to songs like the adorably innocuous "Lovebug," they approach charming. For them, that should be enough.
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That aside, I 100% agree with this article. Except for one thing, I find Lovebug irritating. Now, I may not be your average teenager, but seriously...that song is just plain stupid.
And please, DO NOT remind me of the J.B.'s playing with Stevie Wonder.
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