Album Review by Bradley Christensen
Hawthorne Heights – Fragile Future
Record Label: Victory Records
Release Date: August 5 2008
It’s been around nine months since Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington unfortunately passed away, and in the time since his passing, almost every fan has been wondering what Linkin Park is going to do next, let alone how they’ll move forward. Frontman Mike Shinoda has reassured fans, ultimately saying that they’re not going anywhere, and he’s even got a solo album coming out soon, but this whole thing reminds me of something from about ten years ago. Bands lose members a lot, but it’s always tough when a member unexpectedly and unfortunately passes away, regardless of the circumstances. If you’re around 23 – 30, give or take a few years on each end, you were either just young enough when the emo wave of the early to mid-00s hit, like myself, or you were almost getting too old to be into that kind of stuff, but you might have liked it for a little while, or at the very least, liked a few bands or albums. You know what I’m talking about, too, right? I’m talking bands like Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Senses Fail, Silverstein, Secondhand Serenade, Underoath (they’re not really emo, but 2004’s They’re Only Chasing Safety bled into that territory, whereas the albums before and after were more experimental and more in the metalcore vein), and Hawthorne Heights, a band that I feel like has gotten more underrated over time. They got pretty big in 2004 with songs like “Ohio Is For Lovers,” which is their signature song, as well as “Niki FM,” both off their Victory debut, 2004’s The Silence In Black And White. I was definitely aware of this band, and I’m sure I probably heard those two songs sometime during my emo years, but I got into them really late. I listened to them for the first time in 2012, and the album I picked up was an interesting on in their discography. That was 2008’s Fragile Future, and it’s not an interesting album in the sense that their sound got really weird, or dramatically changed, but in 2007, longtime rhythm guitarist and harsh vocalist, Casey Calvert, unexpectedly passed away in his sleep from a combination of a couple of medications he was taking at the time.
While I wasn’t super into Hawthorne Heights at that time, which is when I got into music originally, I was aware of them. I read Alternative Press religiously, as that’s the main way I got my news and recommendations, since the Internet wasn’t as big of a thing as it is now. It was just starting to come up, especially with MySpace, and things like that, but it was Alternative Press (and to a lesser extent, Absolute Punk when it was called that still, but I still go to Chorus.FM a lot) where I got my news and recommendations from. I remember reading an article about Calvert’s passing, and maybe I still have that issue, because I never got rid of them. They’re a little beat up, but I still have my copies of those issues. Anyway, it hit the alternative, post-hardcore, and emo scenes really hard, because that band was really big at the time. Over time, however, I feel like they’ve gotten more underrated, just because their popularity has somewhat faded over time. Not totally, since they’re releasing a new record in a week from now, but they’re not a big name anymore. To be fair to them, and pretty much every other band in this vein, this style isn’t big anymore, and you don’t hear a lot of bands that have this post-hardcore / emo sound, but some of those bands are still really big. Silverstein, for example, is huge in the scene, as they’re still touring, releasing records, and they’re doing some big things, despite the post-hardcore scene not really being a thing anymore. To an extent, Senses Fail is doing awfully well, too, releasing new stuff, even though I’d put them right in the middle. They’re not super huge, at least as big as Silverstein still is, but I don’t feel like they’re as underrated as Hawthorne Heights has become. I’m getting really off track here, but the point is, the emo / post-hardcore scene took Calvert’s death hard, and nobody would have blamed the rest of the band if they called it quits. Obviously, they didn’t, and the result was Fragile Future, released in 2008. They still kept going, even when it seemed like they couldn’t move on without such an important and wonderful member of the band, as well as just a wonderful man.
The thing about this album is that it doesn’t represent the band well, and that’s mainly for the absence of Calvert, as well as screaming altogether. The first thing that you’ll notice about this album, especially if you’ve only heard their first two, is that there’s no screaming. Frontman JT Woodruff is on his own throughout the record, and that’s not a bad thing, as I like his vocals a lot, but fans (and even my own recollection of them) were used to harsh vocals, too, so this marked an interesting change for the band. I don’t remember fans hating this, or anything like that, but the first time I listened to this album, I was a bit surprised, because I was expecting more of a “heavier” sound, versus a more straightforward emo sound, but then I remembered that this came out after Calvert passed away, so it made sense that the album sounds the way it does. I’ve spent some time re-listening to this, after all these years, because I picked up Woodruff’s last solo album, 2017’s Lonesome, and that made me want to pre-order Hawthorne Heights’ new album, Bad Frequencies, but I also wanted to get into their early stuff. I still had Fragile Future, so I wanted to get back into it, especially now that I like this stuff a lot more. Listening to this album has been really strange, because as much as I really enjoy it, and believe me, it’s a great album, it’s also one that I haven’t been coming back to much. It took me awhile to realize why, but it’s because it’s a very powerful and “heavy” listen that’s hard to sit through at times. Not in the sense that it’s musically heavy, but it’s lyrically and emotionally heavy. The album mainly deals with Calvert’s death, and some songs directly address it, so it’s a hard-hitting listen that can take fans by surprise, even though it makes sense they’d talk about it. This album is just heavy stuff, and it’s one of those albums that I’ve come to really appreciate (even though I wasn’t into this back in the day, and that might be why, actually), but I still don’t listen to this often. I’ve been listening to their first two albums, mainly, because they’re not as heavy-hitting. I mean, yeah, the lyrics on those albums can be very emotional, but they’re not this emotional.
This is one of those records where the music comes last, and the vocals and lyrics are what you need to focus on. I like that they abandoned screams altogether on Fragile Future, because you need to focus on the lyrics, and it would really weird and disrespectful to Calvert if they suddenly replaced his harsh vocals so quickly. One issue that this album does have, and I think it’s because of the lyrical and emotional subject matter, is that it can be a bit too exhausting to listen to. I was listening to this the other day in my headphones, and by the time I was done, it was an exhausting experience. It was a good one, but it was a taxing one. The album isn’t also necessarily as catchy or energetic as the first two albums, too, but I don’t mind that. I mean, yeah, I don’t come back to this album as much as the first two records, but this album isn’t trying to be catchy, or anything like that. It’s an album this band needed to make, and in that respect, I absolutely respect it and enjoy it. Fragile Future isn’t my favorite album from them, by any means, but at the same time, it’s a damn good album that’s worth listening to. I wouldn’t start off with this one, though. Hell, if you’re looking for a good first listen from these guys, check out their debut album, The Silence In Black And White, because it’s got their biggest songs on it, and it’s where it all started. I really like 2006’s If Only You Were Lonely, too, because it’s got a more refined version of the sound on the debut, even though I feel like the songs on the debut are more memorable, so I’m not sure which one out of those is better, but they’re both fantastic. Fragile Future, though, is an album worth listening to, as it’s a very emotionally and lyrically heavy album that is very well-written and performed. It’s not the most “accessible” album from them, as the hooks aren’t as numerous (it’s got some, don’t get me wrong), but the focus is more on the lyrics and the emotionally fantastic performance from JT Woodruff. I wouldn’t start off with this album, like I did, because it’s not a good representation of their sound, but it’s worth a listen, regardless.
Thinking about world's since passed. I went thru and looked for the "new songs" Hawthorne Heights played live in 2007 when Casey was still alive.
Rescue Me, Anywhere But Here, Come Back Home, Until the Judgement Day, End of the Underground, Scrantonicity and Sugar in the Engine (I haven't seen a live clip of SITE but it was mentioned in a July 07 interview)
(After Fragile Future they got "lighter", but like, Casey fucking died man. Since Skeletons news and reviews will claim HH went back to their "original sound". For Skeletons, Hate, Zero, Hurt, Bad Frequencies. How many times can a band go back to their original sound? It's stupid.)
Anyway,,,,, Come Back Home was released on their Myspace, and found home on Fragile Future
Until the Judgement Day was released on FF too. The 07 live version with Casey was introduced as "Declaratory Judgement Day" (they sued their record label, I guess it inspired it). Casey's screams are so guttural "Dispare, and you don't even care!".
Scratonicity was played live, but it was later relegated to a B-side on a Walmart exclusive of Fragile Future or something. The 07 live version has a completely different bridge too -- "Hold your head up high, you know what you've done!", it heavy.
Anywhere But Here, played in 2007, didn't appear on an album until Zero in 2013!! It's a fun song, such a shame. Only 1 short clip and one long but terrible quality clip exists of it.
They talked about what their 3rd album was supposed to be with their old drummer Eron on their podcast in like 2015. He said he'd look into it and post more about it. I tweeted at him a couple of times over the years but never heard anything back.
Until I tweeted him a screenshot of my playlist of songs I made, he responded by adding Desperation (FF), Four Becomes One (FF - which was written after Casey died, so still 2007), Nervous Breakdown (Skeletons), Drive (Skeletons), and Golden Parachutes (Zero).
Golden Parachutes! Surprised to see another Zero song also from 6 years prior. Eron said it was very different at that point. Drive doesn't surprise me, it has that FM radio uptempo feel as Rescue Me or Anywhere But Here. Nervous Breakdown might've been one of the Skeletons-era songs talked about that was supposed to be on LP3 before Casey passed away, I'll have to check. Four Become One is about Casey so it's not on the album that would've been. Desparation might be too, given it's subject matter.
