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Hoobastank - "Every Man for Himself" |
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Written by JORDAN GREENBERG
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Thursday, 08 June 2006 |
Hoobastank, the band that brought “The Reason” to millions in 2004, has just released their third album titled “Every Man for Himself”. Though it’s an uneven mix of their unique style of droning ballad and their build-to-chorus rock tracks, the new album is out to disprove any thoughts of the California trio as a one-hit wonder.
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Hoobastank
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 Entertainment
 Art
"Every Man for Himself"
(Island)
Released May 16, 2006
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The album opens with the track “The Rules” which is simply a set of simple order barked out by a drill sergeant over the sound of a helicopter in the background. Saying nothing relevant to Hoobastank’s music, the song is a strange choice of opener as it sets no clear tone for the album. The end of the first track flows seamlessly into the second, “Born to Lead” which is carried along by the sound of marching boots. Whether or not the marching was inspired by Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks”, the song would have been far stronger without the distraction of this unusual percussion. Forced to work hard to bring the album back to sounder footing, the third track “Moving Forward” does just that. Channeling the spirit of Queen, the steady verses always drive forward as they’re built to lean toward the catchy chorus.
“Every Man for Himself” is a more polished album than their previous efforts. Highly produced tracks such as “Inside of You,” a wholly pop effort reminiscent of Buckcherry in its transparency of lyric, show a slant towards holding the larger fan-base they created with the crossover hit “The Reason”. “The First of Me” fits this category also, with crackling thunder to open the song and a soft-edged rock chorus to sustain it. And despite frontman Doug Robb who often sings with the voice of a petulant child, weakly strained and heavy with whine, Dan Estrin and Chris Hesse on guitar and drums have built a charging and soaring sound around him that makes the band work as a whole.
One track in the middle of the album that stands out for the wrong reason is the first single released off the album “If I Were You”. Here, Robb is more or less left to himself for the greater portion of the song, and his voice will have listeners clawing the walls for release like being stuck inside on a cold and drizzling September Saturday. This track also starts another inconsistent spot in the album where Hoobastank seems to be struggling for their sound with “Without a Fight”, “Don’t Tell Me”, and “Say the Same” which straddle genres and change volume and pace at random. “Look Where We Are” is an exception. Kicking off with a ’70s-era guitar lick and holding the level with a short stair-step climb to and from the chorus, it’s a surprising track for the band and hints that underneath the artificial studio work found in the rest of the album there may be actual growth there.
It’s hardly a profound album, but “Every Man for Himself” has the right balance of ballad and pop to satisfy. With stand out tracks “Inside of You”, “Look Where We Are”, and the late ballad “If Only” Hoobastank has created a decent album overall, but on the downside they’ve also shown the potential to sink ever deeper into production studio gimmicks and find themselves turned into a pop band on the other side. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
