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Wilfred Langmaid

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Hoobastank: For(N)ever - Island/Universal

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Their career has lasted 15 years, and they are technically placed within the post-grunge category. However, the Los Angeles area-rooted band Hoobastank is really a power pop band, and that has never been more clear than on their latest album For(N)ever.

For many, Hoobastank's mega hit love declaration The Reason is their signature. However, this album really specializes in what has been their more typical craft through the years - reflections on love gone wrong with a tone that veers between regretful and defiant.

I Don't Think I Love You, Sick Of Hanging On, and Gone Gone Gone tell tales just as their titles suggest. Weightier, if cut from the same cloth, are the rocking album opener My Turn and The Letter. The latter is the tale of a note from a cheating lover to someone else that is seen with the heartbroken narrator's own eyes.

Hoobsatank has really found their niche. The long-established trio of lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Doug Robb, lead guitarist/keyboardist Dan Estrin, and drummer Chris Hesse may sing of love that does not last, but their career would seem to have plenty of staying power.

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Ali Slaight: Trace The Stars - Universal

On the one hand, this is an odd six-song EP. Clocking at less than 23 minutes, the fact is that it would never have seen the light of day on a major label had Toronto-born Ali Slaight not had the good fortune of being the daughter of Gary Slaight of Q107 fame and the granddaughter of Allan Slaight, who pioneered Canadian AM radio on a big scale with CHUM-AM five decades ago.

That said, the 20-year-old Slaight has a pretty voice and a way with a hook. Her voice is plain, but it can do many things. It is sweet in the beat-filed life anthem Trace The Stars and pensive in the minor-chord based Solitude.

Meanwhile, she can croon and wail in the piano-popper Family Of Friends and scat with panache in the funky Apple Of My Eye.

As well, the songwriting is pretty solid for one so young, even if she is just listed as co-writer of four of the six tracks. (Band members have a hand in writing all six songs.) Lyrically, the messages are of family, friends, hope, and joy. Melodically, the hooks are written and delivered ably by Slaight and her team.

Now a student at Boston's Berklee College of Music, it could well be that Slaight eventually finds her niche in the industry as something other than a solo star. If that is the case, this is at least a more than passable vanity project.

Fredericton-based freelance writer Wilfred Langmaid has reviewed albums in The Daily Gleaner since 1981, and is a past judge for both the Junos and the East Coast Music Awards. His column appears each Saturday.