Every Man For Himself

I've been a Hoobastank fan since I first heard "Crawling in the Dark" on the radio way back in 2001. I own their 2 studio albums ("Hoobastank" and "The Reason") and I love both... I spent the better part of my year in Florida listening to those albums and I have every song memorized. A bit obsessive, I know... but I found the vocals to be just too good and the songs just so easy to drive to. After moving back to my home state of Connecticut, I moved away from Hoobastank a bit, but I always kept a few favorites ("Escape," "Running Away," "Better," "Never There" to name a few) on my iPod playlists. Needless to say when I was listening to XM radio in my car and recognized the vocals and then saw the band's name displayed on my receiver, my jaw dropped as I didn't recognize the song... and as I stated before, I know EVERY song from their first two albums. Later that night, I logged onto this site to see if my suspicion that Hoobastank had released a new album was correct... and it was. Of course, I snatched up the album (at $8.88 would you blame me! with shipping it's cheaper than purchasing it in store!-- I live in the northeastern US, things ain't cheap here). I just got the album in the mail today and the first thing I did was listen to it, and I actually sat through the whole album not skipping around looking for something catchy to become my favorite song. I love every song, and found the less hectic pace of this album to be soothing. I found myself at peace listening to it... but it's no crappy soft rock album. "Every Man for Himself" is a departure from the last two studio albums. It's more grown up and reflective. It seems like the band has grown up quite a bit after their explosion onto the music scene back in 2004 (I would hear that crappy ballad "The Reason" on every radio station... long after the rock stations gave up on it.) The ballad on this latest release "If I Were You" is not as gag promoting as "The Reason" or "Disappear." I'm a woman, I don't like ballads... but "If I Were You" blends some good soaring guitar chords with Doug's amazing vocals. But my favorite song on the album has to be "Born to Lead". It's a catchy, poppy, makes a good first single, but I just love how the song just promotes individualism. Hell, the whole album seems to promote change and individualism. The fundamental sound of the band is the same, but the lyrics and the energy of the songs have changed profoundly. It's a good change! It's really hard to put describe in words how good this album is... buy it, listen to it, and if you're also a true Hoobastank fan, you will truly appreciate it.

I like this band. Since the first time I heard them I loved the quality of the music. I have an acoustic ep with 5 songs that is also awesome. Say what you will, they continue to grow with their music. I love "Moving Forward" and can listen to this cd from beginning to end..

Summer is here and my reasons for knowing this have nothing to do with the calendar's separation of seasons. Hoobastank's newest, and best album in my opinion, has arrived and brought with it a heat that'll set radio airwaves on fire. Every track on Hoobastank's third album has great radio play potential, excluding the album opener, which is a clip of dialogue spoken by the jackass drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket. It's a real rarity for me to purchase a cd in which every track is a hit, but Every Man For Himself threatens to be one of the few exceptions, with maybe one or two tracks that didn't quite sweep me away, or as far away as the other ten were able to. Still, even the album's least appealing tracks (in this case for me they were "Without a Fight" and "Look Where We Are") aren't bad; so much as they are incapable of being compared to the excellence of the other songs. When Hoobastank first arrived on the scene with their self-titled debut album back in 2001, many were lured into their fan-base with the hit singles "Crawling in the Dark" and "Running Away." I was one of them, but became so obsessed with those two single tracks that I didn't so much give the rest of the album a chance. It's been a while since I've listened to the first album, but if memory serves me correctly, I only took three or four favorable songs from the cd and had forgotten about them until 2003, when they released their follow up, The Reason, which featured one of the biggest hit singles of 2003/2004, "The Reason". It didn't take long for that song to become the national anthem of relationships, both beginning and crumbling, and with its release, Hoobastank was able to make it abundantly clear that they were a force to be reckoned with. And, as it turned out, the number of songs that appealed to me on their second album had doubled to six, which had thus resulted with them finding a place in my list of definitive, favorite bands list. In comes Every Man For Himself, some three years after The Reason, and what Hoobastank has managed to do this time around is not only craft a successful achievement, but they have proven here that their talent is a staying power. It's quite possibly the best rock album of 2006. With this third outing, Hoobastank tackles a variety of issues through their lyrics, but more importantly, most of what they sing about here can be understood because they're singing about universal concepts. In "If I Were You," (a track already receiving popular radio play) vocalist Doug Robb sings of the lack of appreciation many people have for their better-than-average lives. All people ever do is complain, but by taking a step back, Robb suggests, they'll be able to take in the bigger picture, which reveals to them that they've really got more than they could ever ask for - the act of loving others and the gift of being loved in return. One of the most underestimated abilities in the music industry is the ability for a song to both sound good and mean something. Hoobastank's lyrics are well conveyed, but more importantly, well sung, creating an overall pleasant experience. Some of the best tracks on the album are "If Only" (a very melodic, both melancholy and uplifting track that'll sooth one's eardrums even when cranked to the loudest volume), "The First of Me" ("I'm not the next of them/ I am the first of me!"), "Good Enough" (a nicely developed rock track), and "Inside of You," which paints an accurate portrait of a sex-hungry man's conscience, while at the same time, being a catchy tune you'll likely wind up singing while driving past a flock of beautiful women with your windows down. Every Man For Himself closes with Hoobastank's new experiment in sound, "More Than A Memory," which turns out to be quite the ambitious move for the band as it is quite different from anything they've ever released. That said their venture into the unknown is a successful one, and more of a welcomed change than a flawed one. Every Man For Himself is the type of album many will illegally download prior to its release, but it's so good that those who've obtained the album for free, are likely to go ahead and buy the album anyway because records like this one deserve their due. With each album released, Hoobastank continues to improve on their technique and since they've nearly mastered it with their third record, I'm a little bit more than anxious to see what kind of tidings their fourth album will bring-- good ones no doubt.

Love this! This is my 3rd CD of Hoobastank. I wear them out!

I like their new stuff way more than the old, and the album flows really nice, but I'm not the biggest Hoobatank fan. But honestly, I do like it, some of the tracks sound the same, but all in all, I'm not diappointed lol.

Loved this album. They never disappoint.

Great price!!!

Ich bin zwar nicht mehr ganz jung, aber schon seit ewigen Zeiten ein Fan von guter Rockmusik. Allerdings muß ich sagen, daß ich diese CD nicht in die Sparte "Gute Rockmusik" einordnen würde, sondern in die Kategorie "Musik -die -süchtig-macht- und- die -man-nicht-mehr-aus-dem-Kopf-kriegt". Besonders gelungen finde ich die Mischung aus sanfteren Stücken und ordentlichen Krachern, die einem die Ohren vom Kopf pusten. Absolut traumhaft!!! Ich kann nur sagen, wer mal wieder richtig tolle Musik hören will, sollte sich diese CD zulegen.

Conforme

Hoobastank rocks!

I assumed it was going to be the yellow one, but it wasn't... I wanted the yellow one for my friend's collection

ファースト・セカンドアルバムに比べてロック要素が増したアルバム。 パワー溢れるロックアルバムの1枚。