MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- PFR -- the Minneapolis rock trio of Joel Hanson, Patrick Andrew, and Mark Nash -- will release Target and the Arrow, its first album of new original material in more than two decades, on Tuesday, September 22, available on all major platforms. The record marks a full-circle moment for a band that walked away at the height of its popularity in 1996 and has spent the past several years finding its way back, powered largely by its own fans.

Formed in Minneapolis in 1989, PFR built one of the defining catalogs in 1990s CCM with a melodic, hook-forward sound frequently compared to Crowded House, Jellyfish, and The Police. The band's 1992 debut, Pray for Rain, earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Christian Rock Album and the

1993 Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year. Two more albums, Goldie's Last Day (1993) and Great Lengths (1994), followed before PFR closed out the decade with its best-selling record, Them (1996), and a farewell tour that ended, fittingly, in the band's hometown.

PFR's return began quietly in 2022 with hometown Minneapolis shows, followed by a Nashville performance in March 2023. On February 10, 2024, the band played a comeback show at First Avenue's Fine Line in Minneapolis that made clear the audience for PFR had never really left. A GoFundMe campaign funded the sessions for Target and the Arrow, and a separately funded Kickstarter campaign allowed the band to remaster and reissue its long out-of-print 2001 album, Disappear, putting it on streaming platforms for the first time.

"I think Target and the Arrow wanted us to make it, if that makes sense," said Joel Hanson (guitar, vocals). "After being apart and then rekindling our friendships with each other back in 2022, our only goal was to make sure that we got together at least once a year. Friendship was all that mattered to us at that point. But slowly songs started coming out of us again and pretty soon we had more than an album's worth of songs we loved. It was almost like the music had just been patiently waiting for us to find each other again."

The album's title traces back to a phrase Patrick Andrew (bass, vocals) jotted down after a conversation about how being just slightly off course in life can mean missing the mark entirely. When he read it aloud to his bandmates during a writing session in Minneapolis, the decision was immediate. "Target was an excuse to spend time with Mark and Joel," Andrew said of the sessions that followed -- a new way of working for the band, built around a week of writing together followed by long stretches of writing long-distance and trading ideas back and forth.

Mark Nash (drums) points to what three decades of friendship add to that process. "There's the chemistry of our friendship that's had its ups and downs over 35-plus years, but we're still here, and we feel like we are now connected stronger than ever," Nash said. The band walked into the studio with roughly 15 songs and, for the first time, the luxury of choosing which would make the record. "We were able to put everything under the microscope," Nash said.

Early listeners have responded strongly. Reviewer Hunter Fraser called Target and the Arrow "a complete unit of music, like a complete work of art," adding: "You're revisiting and revitalizing parts of your story together, as young men and now old men -- not just the lyrics, but the music is saying that same thing... I don't think there's a better thing you could achieve."

Ted Jensen, the Grammy-winning mastering engineer who previously remastered the band's Disappear reissue, was similarly enthusiastic after working on the new record:

"I'd have to say it was one of the most enjoyable albums I've worked on in quite awhile. Great songs, 'Sing' in particular stuck with me. Excellent mixes, great work all around you guys!" -- Ted Jensen

Reviewer Tonya Vlasik heard a band that has lost none of its identity in the years away. "It's amazing how fresh and yet familiar Target and the Arrow sounds," she said. "It has PFR's instantly recognizable sound and the band still maintains all the same vocalism and ethereal harmonies. This is an album way past due and yet loses no time between the then and now."

Reviewer Jon Heffer described the record as an emotional journey "kin to an early U2 project" that tackles "external and internal issues of disappoint, love, dependence and coming to terms with the realities of life and seeing it for what it is" -- thoughtful and joyous, and, in his words, simply "beautiful. It's PFR."

Target and the Arrow will be available on all major platforms Tuesday, September 22. PFR is Joel Hanson (guitar, vocals), Patrick Andrew (bass, vocals), and Mark Nash (drums).

ABOUT PFR

Widely regarded as one of the most influential CCM acts of the 1990s, PFR (Joel Hanson, Patrick Andrew, Mark Nash) formed in Minneapolis in 1989 and released four studio albums -- Pray for Rain (1992), Goldie's Last Day (1993), Great Lengths (1994), and Them (1996) -- earning a Grammy Award nomination and the 1993 Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year along the way. The band disbanded after a farewell tour in 1996 and reunited briefly in 2001 to record Disappear. A full-scale reunion beginning in 2022 has brought the band back to the stage and, with Target and the Arrow, back to the studio for the first time in over twenty years.

For more info on PFR, visit the JFH Artists Database.

 

Share this page:

Facebook X Email Print

 

 

[2026]
Jan. | Feb. | March | April | May | June | July | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec.

[2025]
Jan. | Feb. | March | April | May | June | July | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec.

[2001 - Present]
Visit our complete MUSIC NEWS ARCHIVE