Album Details

• Artist: Hawthorne Heights
• Album: If Only You Were Lonely
• Label: Victory
• Year of Release: 2006
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: digitalbath on 2008-03-04

Oh dear.  Hawthorne Heights' 2006 release, If Only You Were. Where to begin?  Instrumentally one can definitely tell that it had strong influence from a mainstream producer.  The instrumentation is watered down in order to gain more aesthetic appeal rather than showing true artistic talent.  The guitars play the bare minimum and at times are strumming one chord per bar rather than an actual strumming pattern.  I could imagine being extremely bored as a guitarist for Hawthorne Heights.  The drummer simply stays in the groove without doing many fills, which is usually good, but in this case it simply pulls more creativity out of their package.  Lyrically, they seem to have taken a book of cliches and copied them into a format appropriate for lyric interpretation.  If Only You Were is the absolute definition of how mainstream can ruin a band's sound.  

If you don't mind listening to a mediocre band with mediocre vocals, mediocre instruments, and mediocre skill (the entire mainstream scene) then by all means buy this album.  However, if you're looking for something with substance, this album isn't for you. 

User Reviews and Comments

on 2008-03-06 digitalbath Said:

Certainly is.
Not Rated

on 2008-03-06 DeathEyesForKiley Said:

This album was okay. But it is a tragedy about their guitarist dying.....
Not Rated