{"id":41424,"date":"2009-03-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/fornever\/"},"modified":"2009-03-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-25T00:00:00","slug":"fornever","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/fornever\/","title":{"rendered":"For(N)ever"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The good news: Dan Estrin\u2019s formerly hackneyed riffage is all sharp-edged, Slash-style coolness, owing more to the epic blades of Guns N\u2019 Roses or Rise Against than their usual platter of Nickelback platitudes. Where 2006\u2019s <i>Every Man For Himself<\/i> submerged itself in weak post-grunge clich\u00e9s and lame anthems, <i>For(N)ever<\/i> is a more refined and sophisticated rock album. They\u2019re still targeting Top 40 and alternative stations, but it\u2019s a little less shameless this time. The pop rock stinkers even get a little experimental in \u201cTears Of Yesterday,\u201d a ballad with an endearingly avant-garde cushion of spirited piano and swirling violins. It\u2019s nothing to rave about, but it sure as heck beats \u201cThe Reason.\u201d<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The bad news: Douglas Robb\u2019s vocals are as impassioned and overemphatic as ever. While he can do a husky yelp pretty well (check out his chops in \u201cMy Turn,\u201d a surprisingly slick rocker), his singing needs work. He enunciates every syllable like a doomed <i>American Idol<\/i> contestant, and it doesn\u2019t help that he tries to tackle the big arena-rock sound favored by bands like <st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:placename w:st=\"on\"><st1:placename w:st=\"on\">Linkin<\/st1:placename>   <st1:placetype w:st=\"on\">Park<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>. In \u201cThe Letter,\u201d a lascivious tale of infidelity and secret sublunary meetings, Robb\u2019s whiny tenor gets lost amid the shuffling acoustic and crunchy electric guitars.<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Despite the improving song production, the lyrics are still uninspired breakup poetry. This is a band with absolutely nothing to say about the bustling state of American politics or society. In \u201cSick of Hanging On,\u201d he so eloquently states, \u201cAnything sounds better than waiting on your forever,\u201d and then, one song later, he\u2019s wailing about how he needs his current lover more than ever.<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Sometimes the songs get sucked into vapid arena-rock black holes, but most of the time, Dan Estrin\u2019s adroit guitar burbles compensate. Where his sufficient solos sometimes felt out of place in the weepy, emotional overthrows of the band\u2019s former albums, <i>For(N)ever<\/i> is a fitting showcase of his shredding talent. If Hoobastank would just tone down the pointless histrionics a little bit (and maybe start choosing better band and album names), they could craft some pretty potent hard rock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":29809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8369],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-41424","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-hoobastank","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41424"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}