Hawthorne Heights: If Only You Were Lonely : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Hawthorne Heights went gold with their 2004 debut, The Silence in Black and White, a catchier-than-average screamo record that helped make these Dayton, Ohio, boys one of the most beloved bands on MySpace. On If Only You Were Lonely, Hawthorne Heights up the drama-punk ante, channeling tricky rhythms, shimmery soft parts and a metal-schooled three-ax attack into songs that are both action-packed and gratuitously stylized. The busy music suits the controlled agonizing of JT Woodruff, who alternates between little-lost-boy murmur and chorus-driving yowl on darkly catchy barnburners like "We Are So Last Year." Woodruff finds a dozen-plus ways to say he's sorry, but If Only You Were Lonely works best when he lets his mates do most of the talking. "Where Can I Stab Myself in the Ears" plows through metal-march power chords, a desperate call-and-response chorus and a tense half-time breakdown before giving way to the piano-splashed mood music of the closing "Decembers." This combination of grand ambitions and gut-level emotional impact should keep Hawthorne Heights' online-friends list healthy for years to come.