Hawthorne Heights

Skeletons Hawthorne Heights

2010 album from the Alt-Rockers. Skeletons is an unflinching look at what has brought them to this place, executed with a firm desire to make the best of what they see as an opportunity for renewal by expanding their musical palette. Sure, there's the anthemic hard rock of 'Bring You Back,' with it's aching feelings of loss, but there's also the Funk-driven '80s New Wave noir feel of 'Nervous Breakdown,' which describes the insanity of having your lives in the hands of the legal system, the eerie Johnny Cash country shuffle of 'Gravestones,' with Micah Carli manning the pedal steel guitar, the Pop harmonies of 'Picket Fences,' the unsparing look at a recession-wracked heartland and the epic emotional scope of 'Boy,' JT Woodruff's autobiographical look back at a childhood in which his family was abandoned by an alcoholic father.