When is it OK to start feeling nostalgic about something you love?
It seems that music, movies, and TV shows are relying more heavily on sequels and reboots than ever before. In doing so, the entertainment industry is telling its consumers it’s OK to be nostalgic sooner and sooner.
Count the Jonas Brothers among them. In fact, the beloved boy band might go further and pinpoint 20 years as the perfect waiting period before nostalgia sets in.
The trio’s seventh album, Greetings from Your Hometown, arrives two decades after the official launch of their career, and it taps into the origin of one of the most influential boy bands of the mid 2000s.
Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas were an entryway for older millennial and Gen-Z viewers looking to graduate from relatively safe Disney Channel content into their teen years. Throughout their careers, the JoBros experienced the heights of popularity, the depths of their band’s breakup (and, in the case of Joe Jonas, a very public divorce as well), and eventual reunion in 2019 with The Album, which confirmed that their audience is just as loyal two decades removed from the band’s arrival.
As nostalgia would have it, the messages in their music haven’t really changed. While their sound has adopted into the pop charms of the 70s, the Jonas Brothers still bear their emotions proudly. Penning songs about heartbreak and falling in love for 20 years now might get tiresome to some. But the brothers have a few more to share. And there’s only one place to go to say something new about their love lives.
You’ll have to follow them to their hometown to find out.
In the musical return to their hometown of Wyckoff, N.J., the Jonas Brothers find the outcomes of love aren’t always what they expect. At the risk of reducing the album into two categories, songs either arrive at the conclusion that A) love is worth it, or B) the pain of a relationship is too much to bear.
Album opener “I Can’t Lose” shares a resounding affirmation of love in saying, “Oh I can’t lose/When I’m with you/You give me everything, everything I need.” So much so the brothers proclaim, “Got no reason for complaining/Feeling good, can you blame me?”
The emotional rocket continues its ascent on “Backwards” and “Loved You Better.” Both songs express the regret of giving up on love too soon. The brothers sing, “I should have loved you better/But I couldn’t even love myself/Said that we were in this together/Then I didn’t even try to help.”
Title track “Greetings from Your Hometown” reveals a change in the brothers’ approach to relationships after learning a few lessons from previous failures. They sing, “There’s no point in getting stuck in the past/Most days, you don’t know all that you have/But when it’s gone, there’s no going back.”
“Lucky” contains the lone reference to God as they sing, “If God gives you something you don’t think you want/don’t forget just how lucky you are.” While the “something” mentioned remains vague, it’s clear the JoBros are choosing to focus on what they do have instead of what they don’t.
On a non-relational note, the distance from their hometown has given the trio fresh perspective. And in a win for small town representation everywhere, they sing, “Ain’t it strange how perspective changes/I finally appreciate this pace, this place/I don’t hate it/That small same town.”
For all of the shifting perspectives gained, the Jonas Brothers still fall into harmful patterns (lyrically, at least) of running into relationships too quickly with only one thing in mind.
“Love Me to Heaven” enlists macrodosing as an analogy for falling in love. The group sings, “How you take me so high/Macrodosing, getting off on pure emotion/Somehow it gets better every time.”
“Heat of the Moment” recycles one of the group’s most famous lines from the past: “I’m burning up for you, baby” to emphasize how when “All I see is you” wise decisions are rarely made.
A handful of songs stay away from explicit references to suggestive nights of romance. Yet, “No Time To Talk,” “Bully,” and “Slow Motion” each mention one-night stands and casual relationships that hint at more than simply dancing the night away.
The Jonas Brothers also avoid full-fledged profanity, but they get close a few times in cutting off words such as “sh…” and “da…” on a couple songs. “Slow Motion” makes a casual reference to drinking on a date.
People can have mixed feelings about returning home. For the Jonas Brothers, it seems that their literal return in recent years yielded new perspectives on love, loss, and what defines success in a relationship.
Compared to previous post-reunion Jonas Brothers albums, Greetings from Your Hometown ultimately promotes similar, useful takeaways across their career.
Healthy relationships can exist and should be the standard. When difficulties arise, it’s an opportunity to assess the foundation and source of love in your relationship.
While these messages are needed and welcome, vague references to smoking and one-night stands gone too far cast an unseemly shadow in a few places. Add in Joe’s very public divorce as the source for a couple songs, and the takeaways become a bit more murky.
To be fair, these negative moments don’t undermine what is largely a positive message throughout an enjoyable burst of songs. It’d be nice though if going home with the Jonas Brothers didn’t involve illicit affairs and instead focused solely on the lasting love in their relationships.
Jackson Greer is a High School English Teacher in the suburbs of Texas. He lives in Coppell, Texas with his wife, Clara. They love debating whether or not to get another cat and reading poetry together. Also, he is a former employee of Focus on the Family’s Parenting Department.
