Hawthorne Heights
Fragile Future

THE REVIEW

Casey Calvert, the screamer of Hawthorne Heights, was found dead late last year on the band's tour bus. Some say it was a drug overdose that cut him down, others a lethal combination of multiple medications taken without much thought to the consequences.

Most of those who will read this review will start here with a loud "who cares!", while fans of the group will already sense that the Ohio band will never be the same after this departure.

In fact, HH have always based much of their appeal on the alternation, in the voice, between a clean, limpid, and crystalline (that of JT Woodruff) and the shouted anger in perfect screamo style of the aforementioned singer-guitarist. With this amalgam, they have managed over time to earn a good reputation among fans of the more "collegiate" emo (pardon the adjective), the kind often heard in American films set among teenagers, that mix of love-death-hate-loneliness post/pre adolescence themes that are universally relatable. The new album, this "Fragile Future", presents itself to the public as our friends' attempt to recover after a hard blow, and at the same time tries to propose itself as the definitive turning point of the band: have our friends managed to convince everyone, fans and opponents? Partly.

The album is more mature, without a doubt, than the previous ones. The absence of the scream makes it similar to other more recent emo productions, but the product is well-made: it sounds good, it's easy to listen to (perhaps too easily), it leaves some emotion on the skin after several listens, but above all, and I repeat, finally, mature.

Themes such as love and the suffering for failed relationships are still there, obviously, but alongside them are also different themes, perhaps dealt with too lightly, but still treated in a sensitive and effective way. So here "The Business Of Paper Stars" takes a tortuous path such as criticism of the showbiz; here "Four Become One" and "Disaster" deal with Casey's death. The first one especially stands as a requiem and at the same time a dedication full of good memories towards the singer, bringing up memories evoked in a simple and direct text but for this very reason strong and intense. In the midst of all this, pieces of varying quality, more or less energetic, ballads (sometimes tear-jerking) and anthems full of strength.

The worthy pieces are slightly more than half of the total tracks on the album. The already mentioned first track, "Rescue Me" (to be honest a bit cliché but still pleasant), the beautiful "Sugar In The Engine" (perhaps my favorite piece of the whole album, beautiful, full-bodied, and intense), "321", certainly the most adrenaline-pumping piece of the lot, the two already mentioned ballads dedicated to Casey, and the penultimate "Corpse Of Corpses".

Ultimately, I find this "Fragile Future" to be a decent step forward for the band, finally matured, at least humanly. Musically, we are more or less on the usual terrain so far explored by the group, but after all, we are talking about a genre now too wrapped in on itself and, except for rare cases, destined to repeat itself. That does not take away that Hawthorne's latest effort gets more than a pass, let's say a 7 (3.5 in debaser jargon), an encouragement to continue on this path.