Hello and Goodbye
Artist: Jump5
Label: Slanted Records
Length: 10 tracks/30:58 minutes

What drew me to Hello and Goodbye was Jump5’s rendition of The Beatles’ classic “Hello Goodbye.” It’s a fitting choice for a farewell recording from a group that has sold more than 1.4 million units, which includes four studio albums and two gold videos.

Fortunately their breakup won’t be providing fodder for the tabloid and rumor mills. Having been together for nine years, the members of the group just felt that it was time to move on. This release and a farewell tour will close this chapter of their lives so that they can go their own ways.

It all makes the inclusion of “Hello Goodbye” so appropriate. Previous group member Libby Hodges joined in on the song to help Jump5 say hello one last time before saying goodbye. It’s difficult to improve on a classic, but this is a likeable and admirable version that has the pop edginess that is typical of the group.

This is followed by a beautiful piano-driven treatment of “I Surrender All.” This song, which is the most moving, is also fitting. As they go forward, it’s a way for each member to acknowledge their surrender to the One that has brought them this far. The future is in His hands. 

It’s a bittersweet recording with other scattered references that reflect on their journey. It has all the energy and playfulness of their past efforts, but it’s a little sad knowing that this is their last.

It’s somewhat disappointing that this goodbye is so short with only 10 tracks, including two versions of the song “Fly” and an update of a previous song, “Throw Your Hands Up ’07.” 

Despite the brevity of the release, one of the pleasant surprises is an a capella version of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” which closes the CD. Fans also have had something to cheer about with the lead single “Shoot the Moon,”­written by the same team that wrote the number one single “I Got Nerve” by Miley Cyrus­playing on Radio Disney. 

In the end they are leaving in the same way that they came, with trendy teen pop filled with hopeful, encouraging and God-honoring messages. Say Goodbye to Jump5. May each of them be able to say hello to the new things that God will do in their lives. 

Michael Dalton
October 30, 2007

---

Love or loathe them, Jump5 and their handlers deserve some credit. The co-ed blondes have thrived within the Christian market while they simultaneously made it a commercial afterthought. Give Disney's radio and animation divisions some credit in helping the Jump'ers succeed at that kind of almost subversive crossover. Jump5's acceptance in those venues has either, by design or apparent coincidence, opened the House of Mouse to cultivating the talents of other Godly 'tweens favorites from Aly & A.J. to The Jonas Brothers and the current queen of that scene, Miley Cyrus.

As sibling members Brandon and Brittany Hargest prepare to debut their piano-driven pop/rock act, Guest, however, it's time for Jump5--which has been actually Jump4 since the departure of Libby Hodges in '04 to pursue a teenager-hood outside the performance spotlight--to split. Hello & Goodbye announces their departure with the kind of maturity the likes of which it could have been rewarding to hear its evolution.

Funny thing is, however meaty this last album is, it's a continuation of how the group has excelled since its '01 debut. Amid all their hyper-kinetic dance pop and between their recording of cartoon theme songs and patriotic anthems, Jump5 were deftly pre-evangelistic. For parents wanting to give their kids a refuge from how smutty some former Mouseketeers' music careers had become (Britney, Christina, Justin), and for anyone else with ears to hear amid the aural froth, Jump5 were really pretty spiritually grounded. Hearing them on Radio Disney wasn't even half the fun--for adults, anyway.

And so that aforementioned syndicated feed has picked up on this final album's "Shoot The Moon." What at first sounds like a sub-Osteenian musical pep-talk-in-song goes at least a tad deeper than a bland megachurch sermon, especially for its target audience. And it splendidly reconnects with J5's danceable past. "You" gets all the more explicitly Lord-focused, and in a style reminiscent of Marooon 5's jazzier moments.

A spiritedly reverent rendition of "I Surrender All" with piano and classical strings can't help but be even more overtly Christian and bounding toward Josh Groban's classical-crossover territory without a whit of pretense. They render a similarly minimal approach to "The Star Spangled Banner," in case they're called upon to sing it before a sports event before they break up for good, one might imagine.

Tackling classic rock, however, as in turning The Beatles' "Hello Goodbye" into the album's de facto titular track, gets a touch bloated in the group's more typical synth-heavy production style. That said, to hear Hodges rejoin her old band-mates on that track makes for a treat. Conversely, a remix (or is it really altogether re-recorded?) of early hit "Throw Your Hands Up" as a flamenco-flecked acoustic workout adds heretofore unplumbed gravitas to what first sounded like a party jam.

Elsewhere, Jump5 revisit and expand upon their previously established poppiness in just the right way to leave fans wanting more, even if that's not forthcoming any time soon after what barely over a half-hour here. Those fans could aldso pick up their second Christmas longplayer, an unfortunately online-only project, too.

It was fun hearing them grow up in public--and in my case, seeing them three times in concert. But it sounds like Jump5 won't have any trouble finding new musical directions once they set on their go their own ways for good.

Jamie Lee Rake
November 12, 2007