Three years after exploding out of Tulsa, Okla., with a sugary power-pop sound, Hanson — the teenage band composed of three musical brothers — will return in May with a more rock-oriented album, drummer Zachary Hanson said.

The still-untitled studio recording was co-produced by the Hansons and Stephen Lironi (Black Grape), according to a source at Mercury Records who requested anonymity. Lironi produced the brothers' 8 million-selling 1997 debut, Middle of Nowhere.

A potential title for the album — Hanson's fifth — is Album X, guitarist Isaac Hanson wrote in an Oct. 29 Yahoo! online chat. He added that the trio have recorded 17 songs.

During the same chat, Zachary described the sound of the new material as "more on the rock edge compared to the last album," while Isaac hastened to note that the songs still retained the group's signature pop gloss.

The album, being mixed by the trio in Miami, is scheduled for an early May release. It's expected to feature such new tunes as "Run Away Run," "If Only" and "This Time Around." The latter features guitar soloing by blues prodigy and fellow teen star Jonny Lang, according to the label spokesperson.

Among the other guests on the album are Blues Traveler frontman John Popper, Beck turntablist DJ Swamp and Sauce, and a choir conducted by Rosemary Stone of Sly and the Family Stone fame, the Hansons disclosed in the Yahoo! chat.

Isaac wrote that the brothers met Lang while on tour in London last year and asked him to perform on two songs for the new record.

"He came in about three weeks ago and played on several songs," he said. "It was really fun. He's a nice guy and of course plays incredibly well."

Singer Taylor Hanson dropped in briefly to the chat to say that he had just completed vocals for the song "Save Me."

The brothers described the topical tune "Bridges of Stone" as a true-life story chronicling the thoughts of a man going through a divorce. They explained that the lyrics were inspired by a couple whom the group knew.

The Hanson brothers — Isaac, 18, Taylor, 16, and Zachary, 13 — emerged from Tulsa in 1997 with a sound that merged the classic Motown soul-pop of the Jackson 5 with subtle modern touches, such as scratching, courtesy of producers the Dust Brothers.

Their debut album featured such hits as "MMMBop" (RealAudio excerpt) and "Weird" (RealAudio excerpt), co-written by the group and a number of professional songwriters. All the new tracks were penned solely by the brothers, according to the Mercury source.

Rough demo tapes of the album fell into the hands of a handful of hard-core fans, according to Richardson, Texas, resident Ken Steere, 36, who runs the unofficial "Hanson House" (www.hansonhouse.com) website with his 14-year-old daughter.

"A demo was mistakenly released about a month ago, so we got to hear several new songs," computer-network designer Steere said Tuesday (Nov. 30). "They're definitely moving in a more rock-oriented feel, but they're still maintaining some of the pop feel as well."

Among the songs Steere said he heard on the demo were "Smile" and "Dying To Be Alive," which he said features the choir. Steere added that he and his daughter posted clips of a half-dozen of the new songs on their site for a brief time last month, but they took them down at the band's request.

Despite Hanson's teen appeal, the group has earned respect from an unlikely source: Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir. He shared a stage with the brothers in February at the New York club Wetlands, when the trio, who happened to be in town, were brought to Weir's show by their manager.

At this cross-generational rock summit, the Hansons bounded onstage midway through Weir's second set and joined him on several Grateful Dead concert staples, including "Going Down the Road," Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" and the Willie Dixon blues staple "Wang Dang Doodle."

"That was easily the best 12-year-old drummer I've ever played with," Weir said of Zachary. "It's impossible not to see how talented they are, and how far their potential goes."

Weir joked that the Hanson brothers probably would remember him as the "guy who taught them 'Wang Dang Doodle.' Which is fine. Willie Dixon passed it to me, and I passed it along to them."

In July, a Mercury Records source said the band had completed three songs produced by former Cars leader Ric Ocasek. It is unknown if those untitled songs will make the final cut for the album; the band reportedly had a falling out with the producer.

Responding to a question about Ocasek in a recent Rolling Stone magazine item, Taylor said, "We did three songs and decided it wasn't the direction the album was going in."

Hot on the heels of Middle of Nowhere, the group's label released the Christmas album Snowed In at the end of 1997, as well as two albums the following year, Three Car Garage: Indie Recordings 1995–1996, a collection of songs from the group's early years, and a live album, Live From Albertane.