Happiness Begins

Happiness Begins
Studio album by Jonas Brothers
Publication (s)	June 7, 2019
admission	2018-2019
Label (s)	Republican Records
Format (s)	CD , vinyl , download
Genre (s)	Pop , teen pop , funk pop
Title (number)	14 (+2 bonus tracks)
running time	43:44 min. (With bonus tracks: 49:15 min.)
production	Ryan Tedder , Louis Bell, Mike Elizondo , Jason Evigan, Gianni Giuliani, Jonas Jeberg, Greg Kurstin , Joel Little, Mike Sabath, Shellback , Zach Skelton, Sylvester Sivertsen
chronology Lines, Vines and Trying Times (2009) Happiness Begins -
Single releases 1st March 2019 Sucker 5th April 2019 Cool 2nd July 2019 Only human

Happiness Begins is the fifth studio album by the American band Jonas Brothers . It was released on June 7, 2019 on the Republic Records label as a comeback album after their break, ten years after the studio album Lines, Vines and Trying Times and six years after the last live album Live . It reached number one on the Billboard 200 with the biggest week of album sales since 2017.

background

Origin and songwriting

In July 2018 Nick , Kevin and Joe Jonas got together again professionally for the documentary Chasing Happiness about their previous path, from their childhood through the band time to respective solo or other band careers and decided to reunite for them signed with Republic Records . For a new and improved sound for the band, their A&R manager of the label, Wendy Goldstein, contacted music producers Ryan Tedder , Greg Kurstin and Justin Tranter. Work on the album took place in the summer. Advertising of Sucker in March said Nick, it was almost seven, kept secret eight months. Tedder, who was referred to as the “fifth Jonas brother” during production (this includes her fourth brother Frankie, even if he's not a member of the band), described the songwriting process as follows: “We wrote a song around 90 Minutes cut it in the second hour and the demo was played for dinner . ”Writing this album Joe described as personal and raw. Nick also said his wife, Priyanka Chopra and Sophie Turner , who Joe was engaged to at the time and had been married to since May, acted as unofficial advisors because of their pop taste and judgment.

content

In contrast to their earlier projects, the Jonas Brothers said goodbye to rock elements on this album and oriented themselves more towards funk and dance elements that Nick and Joe had cultivated in their own careers during the band break. According to Joe, Kurstin and Tedder cracked the code for the content of the album: "Good mood songs with approaches from 80s New Wave , Reggae and Country , combined with candid snapshots that are at the same time vague to be general." It contains summer hits like Cool and Only Human as well as ballad love songs like Sucker and Love Her , which are aimed at their girlfriends: According to Nick, Hesitate is Joe's love letter to Sophie Turner and I Believe about his own stormy romance with Priyanka Chopra. Her three wives, besides Turner and Chopra, Kevin's wife Danielle Jonas, who together call themselves “J-Sisters”, also appear with the Jonas Brothers in the music video for Sucker and have received personal thanks from their respective partners in the album's booklet. In it, Joe writes to Sophie, for example: "I will never hesitate", which refers to the corresponding song. The last two songs on the album, Rollercoaster and Comeback , deal with her career: first the ups and downs so far and finally the current comeback.

title

The phrase Happiness Begins falls in the lyrics of two songs on the album: In Only Human, the Jonas Brothers demand: "Let's find a place where happiness begins" (let's find a place where happiness begins). Rollercoaster , in which she describes a phase in her career, thematizes the ups and downs of her path so far, as does the film documentary Chasing Hapiness , to whose title the album reacts. In a promo video before the documentary was released, Nick says: “You spend so much time chasing happiness and not realizing it's been there all along.” (You spend so much time chasing happiness without realizing that it's always there was.) Through their reunification, they found it again and with the album and the tour the happiness of yesteryear begins again. The title of the concert film for the Happiness Continues tour also ties in with the title .

Image composition

The cover of the album was designed by GQ Creative Director Jim Moore and costume designer Madeline Weeks and was created during a photoshoot by photographer Peggy Sirota at the private residence "Schnabel Family Retreat" in the hills of Little Tuscany, Palm Springs (California) , which has a 360 ° view of the city, valley and mountains . It shows the brothers from behind, lying by the pool of the residence, with palm trees and mountains in the background. With the sky and the pool, the color scheme is dominated by a pale light blue, which makes it both summery and fresh and cool. However, this picture was not well received by fans on social media.

The CD case also contains a children's drawing inside, made by Kevin's daughters Alena and Valentina after he asked them to draw something special for the album.

Publication and promotion

chronology
February 28, 2019	Sucker	Proclamation
1st March 2019		Publication (single and video)
March 4th to 7th, 2019		Promotion on The Late Late Show
2nd April 2019	Cool	Proclamation
5th April 2019		Publication (single and video)
April 22, 2019	Happiness Begins	Proclamation
1st May 2019	Happiness Begins Tour	Proclamation
May 8, 2019	Chasing happiness	Proclamation
May 11, 2019	Cool	Performance on Saturday Night Live
4th June 2019	Chasing happiness	publication
June 7, 2019	Happiness Begins	publication
June 13, 2019	Only human	Performance at The Tonight Show
2nd July 2019		Publication (digital, radio)
August 7, 2019 to February 22, 2020	Happiness Begins Tour	begin
13th August 2019	Only human	Publication (video)
April 24, 2020	Happiness Continues concert film	publication

Singles

Two singles were released before and so far one after the album. These are the first three tracks on the album.

Sucker

The Jonas Brothers began their comeback with the release of the single Sucker along with the music video on March 1st at midnight. They had previously colored their social media accounts black and then unveiled the cover image with the title the day before on February 28th. For promotion, they appeared from March 4th to 7th for a week on The Late Late Show with James Corden in various segments and played the song.

Cool

Cool was released on April 5th. The music video came out the same day. The Jonas Brothers first played the song live on Saturday Night Live on May 11th .

Only human

Only Human is the first single after the album was released. The Jonas Brothers first played the song on June 13th on The Tonight Show . The single was released digitally and on the radio on July 2, the music video on August 13.

documentation

On June 4, the accompanying documentary Chasing Happiness was released on Prime Video , which, in addition to earlier songs, also plays the first song in the film Rollercoaster to accompany a compilation of video material and the chorus of Comeback in the final part of the film , so that these songs also play before the album premiered.

album

The album only appeared after the first two single releases from Sucker and Cool were released . On April 22nd, the brothers announced the album via the band's account on Twitter as well as separately with an announcement of the title, album cover and date of release. This took place on June 7th.

Editions

The album was released on CD and digitally for download and streaming, as well as a version available exclusively from Target with two bonus tracks that are also included on the album in Japan. It was released on August 16 in the US on vinyl with two LPs. From August 30th, a personalized version per brother will be available exclusively on the Jonas Brothers online shop as CD, vinyl or cassette ; the cassette and LPs are green on Joe's version, pink on Nick's version, and blue on Kevin's version. There is also a cover picture showing the respective brother.

trip

The associated tour started on August 7th. Gradually, several dates in North America and a Europe tour were added until February 22nd. On April 24, 2020, a concert film about the tour entitled Happiness Continues was released on Prime Video .

Track list

No.	title	Songwriter	production	length
1.	Sucker	Nick, Joe and Kevin; Ryan Tedder, Louis Bell, Frank Dukes	Tedder, Dukes	3:01
2.	Cool	Nick, Joe and Kevin; Tedder, Casey Smith, Zach Skelton	Tedder, Skelton	2:47
3.	Only human	Nick, Joe and Kevin; Shellback	Shellback	3:03
4th	I believe	Nick, Greg Kurstin, Mozella	Course student	3:37
5.	Used To Be	Nick, Tedder, Bell, Skelton	Tedder, Bell	3:04
6th	Every single time	Nick and Joe; Course student, Mozella	Course student	3:32
7th	Don't Throw It Away	Nick and Joe; Course student, Mozella	Course student	2:52
8th.	Love Her	Nick, Joe and Kevin; Mike Elizondo	Elizondo	3:13
9.	Happy When I'm Sad	Nick, Joel Little, Sarah Aarons	Little, Tedder, Skelton	2:38
10.	Trust	Nick and Joe; Tedder, Jason Evigan, Ammar Malik	Tedder, Evigan	3:00
11.	Strangers	Nick and Joe; Course student, Mozella	Course student	3:53
12.	Hesitate	Joe, Mike Sabath, Justin Tranter, Kennedi Lykken	Sabath	3:28
13.	Roller coaster	Tedder, Skelton, Smith, Jason Jeberg, Michael Pollack	Tedder, Skelton, Jeberg	3:01
14th	comeback	Nick, Joe and Kevin; Sylvester Willi Sivertsen, James Alan Ghaleb	Sivertsen	2:35
Overall length:				43:44

Bonus title

A version distributed exclusively by Target Corporation and available in Japan includes two additional tracks: another new song and an acoustic version of a song.

No.	title	Songwriter	production	length
15th	First	Joe, Sabath, Tranter, Lykken, Homer Steinweiss	Sabath	2; 58
16.	Cool (acoustics)	Nick, Joe and Kevin; Tedder, Smith, Skelton	Skelton	2:33
Overall length:				49:15

reception

Professional reviews
Averages
source	rating
Metacritic	76%
Reviews
source	rating
The Independent
Allmusic
Consequence of sound	B-
Pitchfork	6.2

The album received very positive reviews from music critics. Roisin O 'Connor from the Independent even goes into superlatives in her judgment: The album contains the best songs of the band and is the best pop comeback and pop album of the year. For Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic , the album sounds rather untypical for the year: “The overall mood of Happiness Begins is proudly not in sync with 2019. The Jonas Brothers have no time for the kind of depressive party music that the late nights of the last 2010s propels; they still swear allegiance to good times and sweet-sad melodies that are there to soothe and comfort. […] The album offers old-fashioned pop values ​​in a way that feels noticeably fresh and modern. ”Olivia Horn of Pitchfork closes with the verdict, after speaking about how the band was laughed at by pop culture in their earlier days, Happiness Begins is by no means an unusual album, but a respectable performance by a group that has long deserved more respect than it received. AD Amorosi also speaks of this for Variety : the album is a hermetically sealed and soulful “poptimistic” work that forces the Jonas Brothers to respect their Disney-famed boy band success.

success

Album charts

After Sucker first came first for a Jonas Brothers single when he entered the Billboard Hot 100 , the album also got the album on the Billboard 200 in the first week with 414,000 album-like sales, including 357,000 album sales. This posed at the time the biggest sales week of an album in 2019 and since 2017, making it reputation of Taylor Swift replaced. In August, Swift even replaced Happiness Begins with their new album Lover for the biggest week of sales.

The album reached first place in the three North American states, in addition to the United States in Canada and Mexico ; in Germany it reached number 17.

Chart placements

Charts	Top ranking	Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK) 14	17th (3 weeks)	3
Austria (Ö3) 12	14th (2 weeks)	2
Switzerland (IFPI) 13	16 (2 weeks)	2
United Kingdom (OCC) 3	2 (5 weeks)	5
United States (Billboard) 2	1 (... Where.)	...

Awards for music sales

In Canada, the album went platinum in August 2019 .

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Brazil (PMB)	gold	20,000
Canada (MC)	platinum	80,000
Switzerland (IFPI)	gold	10,000
All in all	2 × gold 1 × platinum	110,000

Main article: Jonas Brothers / Discography # Awards for Music Sales

Individual evidence

1. ^ Paris Close: Nick Jonas Explains How The Jonas Brothers Reunited On 'Late Late Show' . In: iHeartRadio . March 5, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
2. ^ Corinne Heller: Jonas Brothers Reunite for First Song 5 Years After Split: Watch Them Perform "Sucker" . In: E! News . February 28, 2019. Accessed August 31, 2019.
3. ^ ^{A b c d} Taylor Weatherby: How the Jonas Brothers Healed Their Issues, Reunited & Topped the Hot 100 for the First Time . In: Billboard . April 25, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
4. ↑ Jonas Brothers' comeback album 'Happiness Begins' Is Here: Stream It Now . In: Billboard . June 7, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
5. ↑ De Elizabeth: The Jonas Brothers and Their Significant Others Have the Cutest Nickname . In: TeenVogue . April 7, 2019. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
6. ↑ Jonas Brothers: Promo video for Changing Happiness . In: Twitter . May 20, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
7. ↑ Kristin Scharkey: Here's the scoop on the Palm Springs house on the Jonas Brothers' 'Happiness Begins' album cover . In: Desert Sun. . June 12, 2019. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
8. ↑ Lauren Rearick: New Jonas Brothers Album Cover for "Happiness Begins" Sparks Fan Trolling . In: TeenVogue . April 22, 2019. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
9. ↑ Kevin Jonas: Drawing of Kevin's daughters . In: Instagram . June 5, 2019. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
10. ↑ Alexandra Hurtado: The little Jonas Sisters attend their first-ever Jonas Brothers show . In: Hola! . June 7, 2019. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
11. ↑ Jonas Brothers: Tweet on the announcement of Sucker . In: Twitter . 2019-02-29. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
12. ↑ Jonas Brothers are back, new single drops tonight . In: Variety . February 28, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
13. ↑ Madeleine Fernando: Jonas Brothers Announce New Song 'Cool' . In: Billboard . April 2, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
14. ↑ Hilary Hughes: Jonas Brothers Happily Return to 'SNL' With 'Sucker,' 'Cool' and Surprise Throwback 'Burnin' Up ': Watch . In: Billboard . May 12, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
15. ↑ Lars Brandle: Jonas Brothers Talk Bachelor Party Hijinks, Perform 'Only Human' on 'Fallon': Watch . In: Billboard . June 13, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
16. ↑ Jonas Brothers: Tweet to announce the album . In: Twitter . April 22, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
17. ↑ Derrick Rossignol: The Jonas Brothers Have Announced Their Comeback Album, 'Happiness Begins' . In: Uproxx . April 22, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
18. ↑ personalized versions in the shop . Accessed August 31, 2019.
19. ↑ tour dates . Retrieved August 29, 2019.
20. ↑ Chris Edwards: Jonas Brothers' new movie Happiness Continues is now available to stream . In: Digital Spy . April 24, 2020. Accessed April 28, 2020.
21. ↑ Happiness Begins - Jonas Brothers . metacritic.com. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
22. ^ ^{A b} Roisin O'Connor: Jonas Brothers review, Happiness Begins: The pop comeback of the year . independent.co.uk. June 7, 2019. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
23. ↑ ^{a b} Stephen Thomas Erlewine: Happiness Begins . allmusic.com. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
24. ↑ Christopher Thiessen: Jonas Brothers Return with the Refreshingly Intimate Happiness Begins . consequenceofsound.net. June 10, 2019. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
25. ↑ ^{a b} Olivia Horn: Jonas Brothers - Happiness Begins . pitchfork.com. June 14, 2019. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
26. ↑ AD Amorosi: Album Review: The Jonas Brothers' 'Happiness Begins' . In: Variety . June 7, 2019. Accessed August 31, 2019.
27. ^ Gary Trust: Jonas Brothers Notch First Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 as 'Sucker' Blasts In On Top . In: Billboard . March 11, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
28. ↑ Keith Caulfield: Jonas Brothers' 'Happiness Begins' Album debuts at No. 1 on Billboards 200 Charts with biggest week of 2019 . In: Billboard . June 17, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
29. ↑ Keith Caulfield: Taylor Swift's 'Lover' Lands 2019's Biggest Sales Week in US After First Day of Release . In: Billboard . August 24, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.