The Break – Handbook For The Hopeless

“Life is too short to live in panic or in doubt, take this chance, make it count.” I love lyrics like that. Ask any of my friends, I always have social and political lyrics in my MSN name; and right now, The Break are featured as my MSN name. But that is only one of the hundreds of possible examples I could get from their new Ferret Music full length Handbook For The Hopeless, which, in all honesty, took me by surprise.

Despite having released a self-titled CD in 2001 and a split EP with Let It Burn in 2002, I had never heard of The Break before. With their signing to Ferret Music, I finally heard the name; and when the label released a e-card sampling some songs of Handbook For The Hopeless, I liked it, but still wasn’t sure. But as soon as I got a copy of the album and started playing it, I knew that it will be a CD I will play a lot.

The music is amazing, very similar to that of A Wilhelm Scream, although, a tad slower at times. They know how to change it up with a few slower songs thrown into the mix like Last Night In Manhattanand We Aren’t Your Friends. The vocals are well worn, but not to the point where they are really scratchy. At times they seem to be a bit overpowered by the music, but it fits that way. You need to read the booklet to figure out what he’s saying during certain points, but after you’ve read it once or twice, you are set. The dual guitars make a nice, steady, easy flowing sound that is backed up perfectly by great bass lines and drumming that never goes overboard. It gets you energized and grabs your attention without forcing you to only listen to them, you are still capable of doing other things while it is playing.

Handbook For The Hopeless is a strong, solid release. It won’t break any new boundaries in the fields of punk and rock ‘n’ roll, but it is still a good album to listen to at almost any time.