here’s something that makes listening to Son very comforting. Maybe it’s hearing Jeff Hanson’s simple, yet affecting voice, with its high-pitched, tuneful intonations, over calmly strummed guitar melodies. Maybe it’s the album’s absolute lack of pretension -- nearly all the tracks are 4-minute traditional pop songs, and none of them have a trace of self-consciousness. Maybe it’s the notion one gets when first listening to the album -- that, given the album’s nearly (but not quite) over-emotional nature, one really shouldn’t fall for the songs, but it’s hard not to. But more likely, it’s a combination of these things, a feeling that results from many of Son’s unassuming properties, a feeling that the album is a completely natural effort, one that has just the right ambitions and a pretty good deal of delivery, too.


“Hiding Behind the Moon”, an immediate highlight, does an excellent job of setting the tone for the album, featuring Hanson, as usual, gently playing a pretty, folk-influenced guitar piece under his serenely effeminate vocals. The song’s lyrics perfectly fit the lovely melody as Hanson sweetly sings, “Well I should have known you’d be leaving/ Just as soon as you got here/ And in time I’ll fall around you/ And disappear”. Tenderness like this is ubiquitous on Son, and as on “Hiding Behind the Moon”, many of the songs have both a sense of melancholia and hope, something truly endearing about the album.


The same basic framework furnishes most of Son’s tracks: Hanson alone on vocals and acoustic guitar, generally in a very high key, with folk and classical influences guiding his exceptional propensity for making pop music. This blueprint, surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), is enough to engage the listener throughout the album’s forty-five minutes, as Hanson delivers one pop gem after another. Songs like “You and I Alone”, “Just Like Me”, and the exceptionally touching closer, “Somedays and Sundays” are among the best folk-pop songs in recent times, both beautiful and sincere.


While most of the songs are pretty minimal, a couple tracks feature a little more instrumentation, and a bit more volume. “The End of Everything Known”, a piece as marvelously climactic as its title, offers a valuable piano accompaniment and several imposing swells of volume, succeeding wonderfully at building things up before the quiet closer. “You Are the Reason”, with its overdubbed electric guitar, sounds quite grand, and serves nicely to pick up the pace between two calmer numbers, “Hiding Behind the Moon” and “You and I Alone”. Tracks like these are a nice change, and actually, might be a bit few and far between on Son.


Besides that, not too many complaints can be made about Son. Hanson sticks almost exclusively to a very traditional sound, which risks becoming tiring at times, but really, the old-fashioned style’s what he’s good at, and undoubtedly, what he’s most comfortable with. And when you’re doing what you’re comfortable with as well as Jeff Hanson does here, the result is a superb album, one that’s every bit as rewarding as it aims to be. Really, that’s all that matters.