Album Review: A Little Bit Longer by Jonas Brothers

It's always been a little bit too easy to compare the Jonas Brothers to their teen pop forefathers Hanson, as they're also an adolescent trio of brothers who play their own instruments and write much of their original material, all rooted in classic guitar pop. Initially, this comparison made sense, as their 2006 debut, It's About Time, bore an unmistakable similarity to Middle of Nowhere, but just two years later when the group delivered its third album, A Little Bit Longer, it was clear that the Jonas Brothers were a pop phenomenon in a way Hanson never were. Of course, the Jonas Brothers were helped immeasurably by the marketing might of Disney, who turned the group's 2006 stiff into the bona fide 2007 hit Jonas Brothers through saturation play on Radio Disney and countless TV appearances, including a guest-starring spot on Hannah Montana.

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Aphenomenon across the pond, Jonas Brothers are apple pie wholesome: three Disney-endorsed American evangelical virgin bible-bashing philanthropist siblings on a mission to save the moral cesspit that is rock'n'roll. The God-fearing Louvin Brothers, however, they are not. In fact, their McFly-like soulless pop-rock is unlistenable tosh. .

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26 Black Affair, Pleasure, Pressure, Point (V2) 4 stars Given his starring role in outré folk-hop troupe the Beta Band, nothing that Steve Mason does should ever prove surprising. Even by the defunct group's outlandish standards, though, Mason's latest solo guise is endearingly odd. Who else, after all, would dream of welding Tubeway Army to lubricious RB and house and pull it off?Paul Mardles 27 Anne-Sophie Mutter, Bach: Violin Concertos, Gubaidulina: In Tempus Praesens' (Deutsche Grammophon) 5 stars Anne-Sophie Mutter was a violin wunderkind soloing with the Berlin Philharmonic at the age of 13.

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