2/5 stars

On its recent release “Fragile Future,” Ohio band Hawthorne Heights attempts a comeback from the death of guitarist Casey Calvert last year, and a bitter fight with its label, Victory Records. They don’t totally succeed, but considering the circumstances, you have to respect that they went on with the album.

“Fragile Future,” the band’s third album on Victory Records, stays closer to traditional emo than the screamo sounds that marked 2004’s “The Silence in Black and White” and 2006’s “If Only You Were Lonely.” Calvert was the one who did the screaming, and the band’s decision to not replace him changes the dynamic of the music.

Hawthorne Heights is not one of the most inventive bands out there, and the music and lyrics on the album don’t stray far from either their previous work or the traditional standards of the emo genre. Some of the lyrics are so mundane as to be amusing. The track “Sugar in the Engine” begins with, musically, a dark and ominous tone. And then the first line: “There’s sugar in the engine/ I feel the friction and tension here.” Was a sugary engine really the most menacing possible image that could be used here?

Vocalist and guitarist JT Woodruff doesn’t have much of a singing voice, and on most songs sounds like he has a stuffy nose. In terms of vocal talent, the album is best summed up in an unintentionally funny line from the track “Desperation” – “This is the sound/ Of me wearing thin.”

But there were a few good points as well.

“Four Become One” describes the pain for the remaining band members – Woodruff, lead guitarist Micah Carli, bassist Matt Ridenour and drummer Eron Bucciarelli – as they cope with the loss of Calvert, who died accidentally of a prescription drug interaction. The somber theme of the album is best seen here, through lines such as “The time has come now, and we must figure out/ Driving north or going south, growing up but falling down.” The lyrics are still sappy and contrived, but you can empathize with them.

Hawthorne Heights is not as strong on “Fragile Future” as on its previous albums, but it is still a solid effort and worth a listen.