• Record Label: Victory
  • Release Date: Feb 28, 2006
Metascore
57

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 12
  2. Negative: 1 out of 12
  1. Unsurprisingly, repetition sinks If Only You Were Lonely.
  2. The outfit's three-axe attack coupled with the distinctive pipes of J.T. Woodruff find Hawthorne Heights able to go where peers like Fall Out Boy just can't.
  3. Alternative Press
    70
    Lonely will buy Hawthorne Heights a few more minutes beyond the 15 they've already received. Here's to hoping they'll use that time to think outside of the box a little more when they write LP3. [Mar 2006, p.119]
  4. Billboard
    60
    If Hawthorne Heights stopped trying to please several different audiences and decided whether it wanted to be a pop band or a post-hardcore group, it could make a more definitive musical statement. [4 Mar 2006]
  5. Entertainment Weekly
    67
    Surprisingly banal, bland, and--most importantly--hook deficient. [3 Mar 2006, p.99]
  6. 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.
  7. The New York Times
    30
    Too many of the songs feel flat, despite the stormy guitars and stormier lyrics. [27 Feb 2006]
  8. Guitarist Casey Calvert reprises his role as the group's designated screamer, but his vocal thrashings are featured less prominently here, relegated mainly to solos near the end of songs. Surprisingly, this ends up being a bad thing, because while the screaming is grating at times, it provides one of the principal elements of the band's sound.
  9. Spin
    50
    Hawthorne Heights shun nuance altogether. Quiet equals depth; loud equals catharsis. And never the twain shall meet. [Mar 2006, p.94]
  10. Blender
    50
    Woodruff is never anything but coweringly passive, a trait about as appealing as it is annoying. [Apr 2006, p.112]
  11. Q Magazine
    40
    They spend half their time griping that they haven't got girlfriends and the other half whining that they've just been dumped. [Apr 2006, p.114]
  12. Hawthorne Heights don’t quite have the nervy energy or wit of a My Chemical Romance or Fall Out Boy yet, but their second album is a solid pop effort that reveals space for more growth.
User Score
5.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 43 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 43
  2. Negative: 15 out of 43
  1. someonespecial
    Jul 31, 2006
    10
    It seems to me that people rating this album either like it, or are just mad that the emo kids are stealing their girlfriends and want to It seems to me that people rating this album either like it, or are just mad that the emo kids are stealing their girlfriends and want to give emo a bad name. I fall under under the first category, someone who loves this album, is an emo kid, and probably stole your girlfriend. Don't be mad because youre not in touch with yourself. Everyone tells me "don't cry emo kid", but you're the ones who shouldn't (or perhaps should) cry. Don't blame Hawthorne Heights, only love. Full Review »
  2. May 31, 2011
    7
    If Only You Were Lonely is a stylistic improvement over the band's preceding album, The Silence In Black And White. But despite some powerfulIf Only You Were Lonely is a stylistic improvement over the band's preceding album, The Silence In Black And White. But despite some powerful melodies and even more powerful lyrics, some of the songs lose their taste, quick. Its standout tracks are "Saying Sorry", the perfect teen-emo ballad, and "Dead In The Water", one of the album's hardest and darker tracks. Full Review »
  3. Sep 19, 2010
    7
    Great mix of clean, unclean vocals and raw emotion. Not as amazing as their first album 'Silence in Black and White'. This one seems a bitGreat mix of clean, unclean vocals and raw emotion. Not as amazing as their first album 'Silence in Black and White'. This one seems a bit more cleaned up by the studio. This is the last album before the death of their unclean vocalist Casey Calvert making this creation even more special. Hawthorne Heights continues to hit the deep emotions everyone hides deep inside. No one wants to be lonely and Hawthorne shows you that you are not alone. Great album, just played with a little too much in the studio for me. Full Review »