Jonas CD may find older fans

CD Review

Anyone still confounded by the explosive popularity of the Jonas Brothers clearly isn't listening. At least not with the avidity of a certain kind of teenage girl or grown woman who once swooned over Hanson, 'N Sync, Rick Springfield, Frankie Avalon — insert your era's heartthrob here.

On their smart little rocker of a third album, "A Little Bit Longer," released last week, Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas offer up the ideal, nonthreatening fantasy boyfriend for our macho rock and hip-hop times.

Even as they get older and more famous, these are not young men flexing their muscles of dominance. On "Longer," when they're not confessing to becoming crazed puddles of goo when confronted by the girl of their dreams ("Got Me Going Crazy"), they're pledging loyalty ("BB Good") or begging for forgiveness ("Sorry").

The New Jersey trio also continue to bolster their puppy-love perspective with an increasingly substantial brand of power pop that grows more palatable to the general population with each release. As astute students of their genre, the brothers make sure the up-tempo tunes move at a brisk pace. They pause only long enough to establish melody, hook, economical riffage and basic plot, which generally runs along the lines of "girl, I need/want/dig you."

The best of the batch crib cannily from performers as surprising as Prince (the chastely erotic howls of "BB Good") and the Smashing Pumpkins (check out the Billy Corgan rat-in-a-cage teenage rage of "One Man Show"). The more obvious influences: the Maroon 5 lite funk of "Burnin' Up"; the intriguingly acerbic "Video Girl" has Fountains of Wayne cheek; and the general Cheap Trick-iness of everything else.

No matter how much heaving enunciation is put into them, the ballads become increasingly less successful because all that sensitivity starts to read as wimpy when you replace slash-and-burn guitars with pianos and cellos.

But "A Little Bit Longer" is a real milestone for the Jonas boys as they cross over from Radio Disney to Top 40.