©Matthew Rolston for RollingStone.com

Most of us have probably seen the Hollywood Records press release by now - the Jonases have hit #1 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart with Lines, Vines & Trying Times!

Billboard itself soon confirmed.

Not surprising, exactly, though it is unprecedented in that it is their second #1 within a 10 month period.  It also debuted # 1 in Canada, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Central America. We don’t expect anything less of them!

Congratulations, guys!!!!

But somehow, in the rush of the world tour beginning, and an apparently soberly toned (note uberserious faces above*) Rolling Stone cover feature hitting stands shortly, this feels more like a reassuring affirmation than a moment to  happydance in the streets - the show marches on (not to mention the extracurriculars)!

And of course, the win is not without its glitches, seeing as the album has opened to roughly half of A Little Bit Longer’s astounding opening last August, with 247,000 in sales this past week – still completely awesome, but if you’re neurotic (like me!) you know that this won’t go unnoticed…

Haters – gleeful doom and gloomers that they are – will probably make much of this, but I’ll choose to look at it as the natural part of a shift, rather than as some sort of stall. That’s been the mindset that a lot of the LVaTT media of the past week has been putting us in mind of, and as proof, I’m going to hit some highlights from the recent onslaught of album reviews, the glowing and the less-glowing, that intrigued me.

Join me after the jump!

*[and I also just loved this picture and needed to justify its use.]

There have been a range of reactions to Lines,Vines & Trying Times…it definitely seemed to challenge even the average, supportive critic.  Songs panned by one critic were lovingly embraced by others who don’t like the ones the first one liked, and on and on.  Previously turned-off music writers found themselves pulled in, while others found themselves yearning for Jonas sounds long since printed and shipped. 

Altogether, the album reception has been somewhat convulsive…and I don’t necessarily think that reflects at all badly on LVaTT!

In the  reviews, there were nuggets of wisdom and interest to be found on the songs, and on the Jonas Brothers in general.  Here are some of the excerpts – in the spirit of appreciating constructive criticism even when it isn’t totally positive – that stuck to my ribs…see what you think!

The refreshing thing about “Lines” is the sense that the brothers have zero hang-ups about finding authenticity through traditional rock gestures. The Jonas’ have the advantage of a young fan base for whom Neil Diamond was never hokey and for whom soul has no political ramifications. So it feels natural when the trio skips from falsetto-stretching funk on “World War III” to rhinestone-cowboy country on “What Did I Do to Your Heart.” It’s a clean synopsis of the “I listen to everything” philosophy of today’s youth, and it’s in service of some worthy songwriting. – LA TIMES

Where A Little Bit Longer was built on a strong song foundation, Lines, Vines and Trying Times feels constructed from the outside in, with the concepts coming before the tunes, concepts that all take the Brothers Jonas further away from the fizzy, power pop fun. Lines is designed to showcase a mature Jonas Brothers, who wear their maturation in an increased stylistic range, and fussed-over arrangements that lend this a stiffness of a band well beyond their years. – AllMusic Guide

It may be mere coincidence that the best written of the songs tackle the most controversial subject. “Much Better” addresses Joe’s breakup with fellow teen star Taylor Swift, who never seems to stop talking in interviews about his alleged coldness. “I get a rep for breaking hearts,” Joe writes. “Now I’m done with all the superstars/and all the tears on her guitar.” (That last phrase echoes a Swift song title.) They also subversively reference Swift in the uber-catchy “What Did I Do to Your Heart” by aping her Nashville sound (with terrific results, it turns out).

…What really circumscribes the Jonas’ otherwise sweet appeal is the limitation of their writing. The Monkees made great records because they hired brilliant writers. The Jonas Brothers cut passable ones because they won’t. – NY DAILY NEWS

They’re also showing signs of stress: Often, the girls are deceitful troublemakers, and the songs reflect circumstances spinning out of control. But the brothers sure know how to put the best face on it, with punchy horn parts and crazily catchy hooks that show an appealing variety of influences, from the Stevie Wonder-style clavinet on Hey Baby to the fiddle breaks on What Did I Do to Your Heart. Everybody has to grow up sometime, and Nick, Joe and Kevin are taking their first wary steps in that direction. If they don’t get too tangled up in the lines and the vines, they should make it all right. USA TODAY

Yes, millions of teenage girls helped the Jonas Brothers rise to fame, but they’re also the reason why the group isn’t taken seriously, musically speaking.

…The musicianship of Nick, Kevin and Joe is often overlooked, but that may finally change on their fourth studio album, “Lines, Vines and Trying Times.” AP Wire

As I twittered earlier this week, against all good sense, I didn’t completely hate the new Jonas Brothers album Lines, Vines and Trying Times. What might come as a greater surprise to listeners, I actually listened to the whole thing front to back!

…Some background; I’ve tried once before to listen to the Jonas Brothers. Their last album A Little Bit Longer was part of an Album A Day that was aborted after I couldn’t get more than 5 tracks in without feeling slightly nauseous. So I came in expecting the worst for the new album and was actually kind of surprised. Underneath the Disney Channel-approved demeanor and prettyboy smirks, the Jonas Brothers are rock stars.

…That snarl is simultaneously the most promising and most frustrating aspect of the band. In this song and across the album, that attitude is where the trio’s rockstar style pokes it’s head out from the family-friendly lyrics and attitude. In a couple years when the oldest brother turns 30 and the band escapes the iron grasp of the Disney-owned Hollywood Records, the Jonas Brothers could be a genuinely exciting band to see. And yet, all too often that swagger and style gets coated in sugar and spit-shined, undermining everything that the Jonas Brothers might one day be.

…The Jonas Brothers lyrics and outlook on life are still painted through the lens of a life few would complain about. With a couple years, a few more struggles, and some true heartbreak, the Jonas Brothers might come back with a fire previously unseen or heard by fans. VIVA LA MAINSTREAM Blog

There are enough hits on the fourth album from these teen heartthrobs to put many a “serious” rock band to shame. DOSE CANADA

Arguably the most interesting song on the album is “Don’t Charge Me for the Crime,” guest starring Common (a rapper whose solo material has some significant problems). The song tells the story of a young man who almost gets drawn into the illegal activities of a peer before wisely choosing to extricate himself from that tempting and dangerous situation. The song flirts with some gangsta rap conventions, but ultimately it eschews that genre’s excesses in route to a positive message.

…Their perspective on life is long on emotion but short on the big-picture perspective that’s necessary to make sense of the romantic wounds chronicled on Trying Times. Plugged In Online

The Jo-Bros try a bit of everything here. Fly Away is soaring, breathy, escapist fantasy; Hey Baby is bouncy, horn-enhanced ’80s pop; What Did I Do to Your Heart is country-rock; Turn Right is an acoustic torch song (sung in quivering falsetto); and closer Keep It Real is a swinging Katrina and the Waves-styled dance number.

…There are still enough pop smarts to make the whole thing flow smoothly.

…But it’s hard to shake the feeling that this is a transition album – one that, hopefully, finds the brothers on the path to a less scattered, less derivative sound with an identity of its own. The Montreal Gazette

But it’s hard to fault the more endearing pop hooks here. The effervescent “Fly With Me” is bubblegum as Coldplay might have done it. “Poison Ivy” may, in fact, be catchier than poison ivy – with a chorus fit for Weezer. And Rick Springfield could have followed “Jessie’s Girl” to No. 1 with a hook as infectious as “Paranoid.”

…At their best, they’re a really good power-pop band with a talent for driving the little girls wild. And there’s no shame in that. AZ CENTRAL

Trotting out a relatively exotic title that hints of something beyond the bubblegum, the group seems to have gleaned at least one key lesson about boy-band life: Popularity alone won’t get you through the long haul.So give the threesome credit for aiming a little higher — even if they don’t always cleanly clear the bar.

…If you’re thirsting for art, you’ll probably need to wait for the existential reckoning that follows the group’s inevitable slip from the chart peaks. But at least Kevin, Joe and Nick are daring enough to browse a new musical wardrobe, and smart enough to grasp what’s ahead. DETROIT FREE PRESS

Soooo…

Some of these rough up the Boys more than others – but I still find them to be making fairly reasonable points, and important to consider.

Especially when held up against the type of critic who’ll call something a “pile of garbage” (this can be fully dismissed – he’s unqualified to review this album, in my opinion!) or litter their review with a few too many lame references to “Nutrasweet”, fuzzy bunnies and such to drive their ‘not-grown-up’ point home, I welcome the sort of criticism above, that actually seek to offer the straight talk of an objective listener.

Best of all, inherent in the constructive tone of a lot of these is often a real implication that the Boys will be sticking around. And for this new development, I am grateful.

But…what do you all think?

[And Bonus: Care to analyze this alternative Rolling Stone photo up top, anyone?! ...SharpLD? ]

Ah…Adorable!

In contrast – here’s my (soon to be patented) Sunday morning hand-wringer, everybody!!!

This came up in the previous thread, and it was something that has crossed my mind over the last couple of weeks: Where is the promotional push to get “Lovebug” to the top of the charts?

Eventually, it comes down to fan activism…getting everyone excited about requesting at radio and such. But in the past, with marching orders coming down from MySpace and SayNow, it seemed to be driven pretty well from the top.  By which I am not sure if I mean the Boys’ multi-pronged management team (Papa J & Co) or did it come all the way from the Disney offices, currently rumored to be beleaguered in the publicity department?

The Jonases have done very well, with high-charting albums, without ever having a bonafide chart-topping single…which seems innocuous enough, apart from having that be an annoyance from a place of fan-pride.  But I was bothered this week to see that on the chart report I read, that the Jonai didn’t garner a mention…and the charts are not based completely on somewhat irrelevant radio airplay  (I don’t listen to music radio, do you guys?) but also sales.

Thanks to the recent death of TRL – the usual next stop after a choir-preaching Disney Channel video debut – I guess radio play could be seen as more significant.  Unless they are going back to FNMTV?

I have heard from non-Jonasfans that they felt that “LoveBug” should be, deservedly, a HUGE single for the Boys…but so far…not so much.

So what gives?   Is it the economy? The election? The distraction of taping “Jonas” and such?

Or is there something yet up their sleeves…like the Thanksgiving Cowboys game, and will that be effective enough outreach?

Thoughts?

OK, to balance the worrywarting, a couple of my favorite shots of the Boys at last night’s Carousel of Hope Ball last night in Beverly Hills for you to enjoy…after the jump!

Proceeds from the event, also attended by the likes of Jay Leno, Josh Groban, Denzel Washington and Nicole Ritchie, will go to benefit the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes.

[Via: WireImage]

All that really bears saying tonight is…

NUMBER ONE!!!!!

Oh yeah…and TEN. And pretty much also EIGHT.

Third biggest album opening of the year! Amazing.

Everybody’s talking about their instant gold!

I feel tired.  *tissues*

[Via: JonasPandemonium]

Billboard, Entertainment Weekly and Perez Hilton are abuzz with the news that A Little Bit Longer looks to have shot out of the gate stronger than many expected…an almost assured #1, and likely an easy resident among the top 5 selling albums of the year (!!).

All the hard work (on their part) and devotion (on ours) is paying off!

If it’s up your alley – now would be a good time to go stock up on tissues…I suspect we’ll all soon be crying some tears of relief and joy.

[Via: People Magazine (Jonas Brothers People Magazine Celebrity Central Profile Page)]

You’ve probably already heard the good news…“Burnin’ Up” debuted at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart!!

And that’s not even to mention the way Camp Rock has leapt to prominence on the album chart, with an array of its tracks dotting the top 50 of the hot digital chart as well. Excellence.

Congrats, Boys…but we know it’s not just a victory, but a challenge: 4 spots to climb!!

Pictured above at their Much Music appearance in Toronto, ON, this afternoon, it almost looks as if someone just let them know…Is Nick churning the butter?

[Via: TheGate.ca; Billboard]