Review Summary: The band that would become Hawthorne Heights starts at a near reasonable point, but unfortunately, they began their descent here.
Hawthorne Heights is a now well-known group in the music scene. Even though their music isn’t the most impressive, innovative or good for that matter, they have still managed three commercially successful albums using the same formula of what some would consider “success”. That being uninspired and overused pop-hooks. A Day In The Life was the band that came before Hawthorne Heights. The sound is similar to earlier Hawthorne Heights, but you can tell the sound is different. The only full-length they put out under this alias is
Nine Reasons To Say Goodbye, which obviously contains nine tracks. The band that would later become commercially successful began their musical descent here.
Nine Reasons To Say Goodbye is lyrically a Hawthorne Heights album. The lyrics are, for the most part, very average at best. JT Woodruff cries his heart out with his overused pre-teen angst themes and instances of heartbreak on a constant basis. However, this time around, his vocals sound more emotional and grabbing than before, albeit sometimes out of tune. The production for the most part is good, except at some points the vocals are weak. (see Candycanes and Cola)
The guitar work is less than stellar, but it is enough to keep the songs mildly interesting. Casey Calvert, Micah Carli and JT Woodruff all play guitar for the band and it is amusing that they weren’t able to be more creative with their guitar lines. They seem dependent on bar chords most of the time. There are points where the guitars do seem to blend well together, but for the most part, they do an average job at keeping things interesting. The bass is rarely audible, and when it actually is, it isn’t anything special.
The songs themselves are ok, but they lack creativity and energy. The use of acoustic guitar is very pleasant throughout, which makes the music a lot easier to listen to. The combination of an acoustic atmosphere and the attitude that A Day In The Life projects is a great mixture, and it proves to be much better than the sound the band would later stick with as Hawthorne Heights.
Nine Reasons To Say Goodbye is good for what it is, but the lack of originality plagues it from beginning to end. The potential found within this album can only be looked down upon in disappointment, as many have witnessed the downfall of Hawthorne Heights throughout this decade.
Nine Reasons To Say Goodbye is their best work as musicians thus far, and one can only hope that for their sake, that they can someday trump even this average effort, or at least match it.
Rating: 2.6
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