| The Reason, the second album from clean-cut Californian mall-rockers Hoobastank, is a massive improvement on the band's eponymous 2002 debut. It's a thoughtful and passionate alt-rock set that consigns many of the band's more obvious influences to the dustbin and proves that even rock's most transparent copyists deserve a second chance to make a first impression. Frontman Doug Robb has shaken off his rather Brandon Boyd-esque vocal affectations and now sounds very much like his own man, riding bruising rockers such as "Just One" and "Let It Out" with a flexible emotional range and sharp ear for a scream-along chorus. The band, meanwhile, have grown into an altogether different beast, guitarist Dan Estrin coaxing his fretboard from deft, nostalgia-pricked melodicism to complex metal riffing with evident skill, and the powerhouse rhythm section of bassist Markku Lappalainen and drummer Chris Hesse firing off virtuostic dynamic flourishes right through to the last climactic lap of the closing "Disappear". It's true, Hoobastank's rather bland, cookie-cutter image probably won't do them any favours in today's cooler-than-thou alternative marketplace, but you overlook this album at your peril. --Louis Pattison |
