Right about now, every guy is wishing he hadn't thrown out his old notebooks from his awkward junior high days. Every girl problem was a melodramatic crisis, which resulted in even more melodramatic poetry. But who could have guessed you could add guitar chords to juvenile lines like "I wish I could have known you better/I should blame it on the weather," and come up with a hit rock song?

Hawthorne Heights saw it coming. Adolescent rhymes, constant heartbreak over girls, some distortion and screaming, bake at 400 degrees: the basic ingredients for an emo or screamo album. Welcome to the band's sophomore effort, If Only You Were Lonely.

And, boy, are they some awful lyrics. The bulk of the album sounds like it's from a 15-year-old's diary, featuring gems like "I wish I could, but I know I can't take it back/It's serious just like heart attacks."

And, as if that wasn't silly enough, the band went for the previously unexplored "a 15-year-old's diary translated into Japanese then back into English" genre of lyrics with head-scratchers like "My personality avoids the scenery/I hate playing games with the industry."

With the limited palate of this genre of rock, it should be easy to find ways to innovate. And while the Heights' does make a few token attempts to grow on its second album, they are few and far between, and failed attempts at that. Nothing comes close to the catchiness of its breakthrough song "Ohio Is For Lovers."

Lead single "Saying Sorry" incorporates some keyboards at the end, but the meandering electronics add absolutely nothing to the song. It's quite possible that someone accidentally leaned on the keys, and they just decided to leave it on the track. "Breathing in Sequence" features an unexpected bit of lead guitar at the end, but it's not enough to save the generic emo-chugging riffs that lead up to it. "Light Sleeper" begins as a softer track but can't commit and hits the distortion after a scant 24 seconds.

The biggest case for attempted artistic growth is the album closer "Decembers." In the piano-based song, the band pursues a more melodic route and aims for a soaring ballad, but it falls from the sky to become one of the album's biggest embarrassments.

What sounds like an electric drum kit does a shuffling slow-dance beat, a lead guitar part that sounds like it was lifted off Monster Ballads quivers in the background and, at the end, the early favorite for the year's cheesiest string section comes in. It's a blatant shot at radio play, and it's not a second too soon for the upcoming proms.

But at least it tries something new. The bulk of the album is emo-by-numbers. Particularly painful is that Hawthorne Heights just follows convention, whether or not it fits into the song. The genre's big addition to the standard rock line-up, that of "back-up screaming," ensures that in case you miss a line, you'll get a hoarse voice shouting it back at you.

The band apparently features three guitarists, which is impossible to tell from the endless amount of chugging riffs. The band hasn't written a single song that requires three guitar melodies, and sometimes it can't even come up with just the one. The riff from "This Is Who We Are" is recycled three songs later on "Pens and Needles," and it was a typical emo riff to begin with.

It would be nice to think that when you get out of high school, you grow past this kind of silliness and look for something more substantial. But Hawthorne Heights was in town on Sunday, and the line for the show stretched around the block. The album will probably go to No. 1, but I still think they should have named the whole album after track 11: "Where Can I Stab Myself in the Ears?" Grade: D