Lock up your urban CD collection people. Hawthorne Heights are back in town for their third album. This time though, it's personal. In theory.
The band have been through a lot since the release of 2006's "If Only You Were Lonely". First of all they had a rather nasty spat with nobody's favourite label Victory Records, then guitarist/vocalist Casey Calvert unexpectedly passed away from an accidental drug overdose before the band were forced to rejoin Victory since their contract was un-getoutable of.
Thankfully, the band saw fit not to replace the world's most inappropriate backing vocals which saw the last word of each vocal line repeated in a pseudo-death metal growl regardless of the mood of the current song. Unfortunately for them though, this was perhaps the only thing which made the band remotely notable and unique. (imagine if Courtney Love stopped opening her mouth and you have a similar predicament) Without these, they're just another barely adequate pop-punk band trying to distil their unremarkable observations over power-chord choruses. Only now, they have considerably weightier topics to deal with.
This does not help them though, since even the obviously Casey-centric song "Four Becomes One" creaks under the weight of its embarrassing lyricism. A chorus of "When five becomes four / and four becomes one / You're not just passing on / your passing on all the fun we had / you made us laugh / we only cried but once" set above a predictably plodding melody has no chance of evoking the emotions which music is so capable of doing. Clearly the man needs to attend whatever lyricism class Jesse Lacey went to between recording "Your Favourite Weapon" and "Deja Entendu".
Front-man JT Woodruff struggles even more than usual now he's carry virtually the entire voice of the band, (except for a smattering of group shouts from the backdrop) his four-parts yearning to two-parts whining vocal style gets old quicker than you can say "...hey, this has gotten quite old now". Equally, his predictable chorus delivery of 'three or four syllables of almost spoken vocals, then raise it up a few semitones and continue for another few syllables. Right, now hold the note' varies little and delivers few memorable choruses.
There are a few brief glimpses of progression in the bands output. Album intro "The Business of Paper Stars" (ignore the awful song title please) shows them quite capable of building up a dark, foreboding instrumental section, a mood which is oddly spoilt the second Woodruff opens his mouth; go figure. "Sugar in the Engine" applies the more experimental nature to the end of the song and ends on a somewhat interesting note (not literally, F# is never interesting) as a stirringly sympathetic guitar melody plays backdrop to a spoken word outro.
Whether you consider around five minutes of intrigue worth thirty-eight of mundanity will be a question only you can answer. As for us, we're feeling bad about it, but the album still gets a four. Smashing blokes though, if albums were judged on niceness, this'd be a nine for sure.
4 / 10
It's true, after review of the album, there is a giant difference with Woodruff on vocals solely. He struggles and annoys with his monotony and lack of vocal temperance. Casey was so much a part of the sound that is now lost. I think this may be the end of the Heights. They have made a great effort to move forward, but the pieces of the puzzle are now missing and replacing Casey I think will not be an option. It sickens me to say this, but I think HH's best music is in the past.
this review is horrible. i loved caseys screaming, it was the reason i loved hawthorne heights. i mean i still do, but i miss the screaming. if you wanna be a respected music reviewer, open your mind a little. worst review i've ever read, i give the album an 8/10
Wow what a bad review. This is probably the best album of 2008, hawthorne heights is one of the best bands right now too. "The Business of Paper Stars" (ignore the awful song title please)" lol well guess what? Your site sounds gay as hell Strangeglue.com wtf is that supposed to be.
sorry but the person who wrote the review is a fag.
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R.I.P Casey. I believe this is the best album ever.
I dunno really what to think of the album. Its proberly the weakest of all of 3 of them. They're arn't maybe songs that got me hooked if i'm honest. Rescue me and Let go of everything you know, are proberly the only songs that truely stand out to me.
I gotta give them credit for trying to "bring rock back"
Don't get me wrong. You'll either hate it or love it.
Liam
I may speak for myself here, but Strange Glue is the odd fabric which holds us all together. Although we may all have differing tastes, our generation has a bond through music like no other has had before.
It's a sort of extension of a poster which hung in my music classroom back in secondary school, which read "music - the universal language". But that's just my interpretation, I didn't pick the name of the website.
Anyway, come back in December and tell me one website (besides www.hawthorneheightsizdaawesomist.com) which places "Fragile Future" is their top 50 and we'll talk about it being the best of 2008 some more.
Besides, what do you care what others think? In your mind it's the best and it's your opinion that counts at the end of the day.
i've sadly got to agree, without casey's screams the songs just lack. I used to love Hawthorne Heights but without casey, i dunno, it just sounds, wrong... xoxo
i think that review is a load of trash!!!
hawthorne heights are unique and their music and lyrics are some of the most beautiful i have ever heard. Casey was brilliant and Hawthorne Heights will never be the same without- they've suffered a terrible loss and chattin like that about them isn't gonna help!!! i'm appalled at how insensitive you are towards such great artists and that there are very many people like myself who think Hawthorne Heights are one of the best bands around. their music is soaked with emotion and feeling and makes many of us feel better when times aren't so good.
grow up
Grow up?! Really? But you turn to HH when times are bad?!!
Anyway, I'm going to have to go and do you a favour here Yasmin as HH provide you with the most beautiful lyrics you've ever heard, check this out...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amarantine-Enya/dp/B000BPCCY6/ref=pd_sim_m_h__5
Personally I think Nickelback's "Photograph" is the most beautiful song ever written, lyrically speaking.
"Look at this photograph
Everytime I do it makes me laugh
How did our eyes get so red
And what the hell is on Joey's head"
"Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye."
Their songs are so incredibly relatable. I mean, this one time, I was looking at a photo, and I thought, "What's that on Zoe's leg?" So it's like they were almost inside my head.
"It's hard to say..... goodbye" - wow, Chad Kroeger has a magnificent mastery of the English language, I'd have never of thought to sing goodbye in a song about leaving things behind. But he's a really deep writer, 'cause he like, finds it difficult.
Tears to eyes, every time!
wow, lol, talk about not understanding types of music.
Change your gay ass site name (Strangeglue) and then we'll talk about "bad titles".
Don't judge something if your so biased you won't even give it a chance, because its fucking pointless.
Aidan = FAIL
idk.... this was easily the best album lyrically for hh, but vocally.... i love hh, and will continue to listen to them, in remebrance of what they were, and the tragedy that pulled them apart... but really, i dont know... they might lack some elements that would put them over the top in the mainstream, but they just really dug into feelings everyone feels... it was like they were personally talking to you about life issues.... but now the music just went down greatly... i really dont know anymore...
I first met David... Read on
On paper, it's hard... Read on
Freshly processed from the strangeglue.com playlist at Last.fm
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Gabbie
commented 4 months ago
With all do respect Aiden, this review is B.S., obviously you just don't "get" the album. This critique, which has the audacity to take the form of an ‘honest review’, is closed-minded, and something that an over-confident, stereo-typical, one-sided critic would write based on his personal appeal to certain genres of music. I'm not saying that the new Hawthorne Heights album is the best they've ever done, or even flawless, but this review does no justice to the actual musical composition, lyrical creativity, or emotion that the band put forth in this album. I’ve listened to the album several times already, and your cynical words by all means do not convey the message of Fragile Future.
True Hawthorne Heights fans should not read this review to get a perspective of what the album sounds like. It completely underestimates that realities and heart of Fragile Future. I would highly suggest that one listens to the clips on itunes and review the album themselves. Don’t count on Aiden’s review to reveal an accurate description of Fragile Future (no offense Aiden).