Review Summary: Do you remember now?
It’s safe to say that Hoobastank is a band that virtually nobody cares about anymore, that very few people even cared about to begin with. There are plenty of reasons for this. First of all, they have one of the most awful names in music history. Second of all, they were virtually a one hit wonder. Their one hit is probably one of the most awful radio singles in music history (with some of the worst lyrics ever too.) The Reason really pained a bad image for this band. When that song came out, most people grouped them with bands like Nickelback (the group of bad contemporary rock bands).
Finally, Hoobastank is also considered to be a “poor man’s” Incubus. To a degree, they are. Hoobastank and Incubus have very similar catalogues, based upon the fact that they grew up together. Their albums are sort of easy to compare together. Obviously, Incubus has done a lot better than Hoobastank (rightfully so. Incubus is one of my favorite bands; additionally they’re a very solid, well rounded, and unique band). Hoobastank does incorporate the same style as Incubus…to a degree. They’re not entirely Incubus rip-offs, because of something signature in Incubus’s sound. Incubus experiments a lot. Hoobastank basically takes the hard rock stuff on Make Yourself and Morning View and recycles it. They don’t use a phaser, or a DJ, or difficult bass riffs. Nah, they just basically recycle “Privilege” and “Circles” removing the complicated stuff. Is this bad? Honestly, not really.
Hoobastank is honestly just another hard rock band, and the singles show that they can do a pretty good job with that. “Crawling in the Dark” is a really solid rock track and a good lead single choice. The song is very reminiscent to the kind of hard rock stuff Incubus makes, just watered down, which again isn’t a horrible thing. Obviously, the song doesn’t contain any of the quirky yet brilliant lyricism, or vocals that can even compare to Brandon Boyd, but the song is actually a really strong effort and probably one of their best. “Remember Me” was the 2nd single, which (again) was another strong track. I’d recommend the music video version for this one, because it just cuts right to the song. The original version has a weird psychedelic type intro, which is cool, but definitely doesn’t suit the song well. Lyrically “Remember Me” is the perfect song for anyone who felt like an outcast growing up, and after finding acceptance starts to deny the people who outshined them. The lyrics are pretty strong and the track succeeds as a whole.
“Running Away” is probably the track you’d most recognize from this album, and it’s a very…mainstream sounding song. This track highlights Robb’s vocal ability (again, he’s no Brandon Boyd, but he can sing well enough). This is another strong track. After you get past the singles, you hit “Pieces”, which is probably the highlight of the album. This is a great hard rock song. This perfectly illustrates what Hoobastank was capable of in terms of aggression. Unfortunately, this is where we get out of the album’s good tracks.
The album contains a ton of mediocre songs that would qualify as “watered down Incubus”. “Let You Know” is a very dull song that never picks up its monotone tempo. While it’s only 3:40, it feels much longer and just drags on. The chorus is kind of nice, but there is really no appeal to it. “Better” brings you in with an interesting riff but the song’s awful lyrics make the riff instantly worthless towards the quality. Luckily, “Ready for You” gets the album back up. It’s not that great of a song, but after the previous two, it sounds a lot better than it probably is. The song has a nice feel to it and lyrics that don’t completely suck (which is an upgrade for Hoobastank). “Up and Gone” is an energetic song, but the melodies just don’t sound right and the key changes throw it off a lot. Key changes are far from being bad, but Hoobastank just makes them confusing.
Again, “Too Little Too Late” is a stronger track on the 2nd half. Hoobastank is good at writing catchy choruses, and this track showcases that. They are also good at recording vocal harmonies, which this track also illustrates. “Hello Again” is once again not a bad song, as well a strong hard rock effort (like a good half of this album), but is also a relatively boring track as a whole. There’s nothing bad or special here.
Honestly, “To Be With You” was a track I didn’t know what to make of after my first listen, simply because it was so different from everything else on the album. I kind of think this may have been their attempt of copying “The Warmth” by Incubus (but they don’t really sound all that similar so I’m not too sure). It’s a quiet, atmospheric ballad type song that kinda sounds like “Ghost Man on Third” by Taking Back Sunday (sorry, I’m terrible at descriptions). Finally, the album closes with another typical Hoobastank song. “Give It Back” is yet again, another hard rock track driven by a cool riff with mediocre lyrics. Like most other tracks, it’s not bad, but it definitely doesn’t wrap the album up well, especially because it ends with dialogue/laughter. They literally just took themselves talking about “cheesy, bad rap” and decided to end the album with that. What a good conclusion.
Overall, this album is far from being great, but it’s definitely not bad, especially not the first half. The album starts out pretty strong and just loses its balance pretty quickly. They’re definitely a band that’s more than what people dismiss them as (bad “contemporary rock” like Nickelback, Creed, Puddle of Mud, etc.) At the same time, their music is far from being revolutionary or worth massive respect. The first four songs are worth a listen if you like solid mainstream rock (and you want to move on to the rest of the album I won’t stop you). It’s not bad, but this even came out after their peak. That says a lot about how good their music was afterwards. Kinda sucks when your debut was your peak, and no one even cared about you when it came out.
1. Crawling in the Dark (9/10)
2. Remember Me (9/10)
3. Running Away (9/10)
4. Pieces (10/10)
5. Let You Know (6/10)
6. Better (5/10)
7. Ready for You (8/10)
8. Up and Gone (6/10)
9. Too Little Too Late (8/10)
10. Hello Again (7/10)
11. To Be With You (8/10)
12. Give It Back (6/10)
