Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Dusk and Summer

Hey, you like Chris Carrabba, right? I mean, y'know, Dashboard Confessional and Further Seems Forever (well, their first outing anyway, for the purpose of this we don't need to consider their later lead singers)? What'd you say if I told you that Dashboard have gone pseudo-FSF? You'd be stoked?

DON'T BE.

Dashboard Confessional's latest offering to all and sundry, "Dusk and Summer", is, to quote Heckler Spray, something that could not be any more "middle of the road if it bought a pneumatic drill and a set of traffic cones". It sounds like Keane and Embrace collided with Chris on a busy junction one warm day and, in the ensuing madness, they somehow managed to melt together and form something horrible bland.

You're used to a passionate Chris? You thought A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar was a sellout? Atleast it tried to make up for that with a bit of passion and sincerity and it was a genuinely enjoyable experience. Dusk and Summer, however, is melancholically non-deviant shit. The only saving graces that it is possessive of would be the tracks "Dusk and Summer", reminiscent of The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (apart from the bleached-clean production) and The Swiss Army Romance (which I could recomment to everyone and anyone); and the fact that the album has Vindicated (of Spiderman 2 infamy) has been slapped on as a bonus track, and it is a track which reminds me happily of first receiving "A Mark, A Mission...", with its sweet, punchy guitar and what appears to be genuine empathy.

To summarise: Dusk and Summer is like, figuratively speaking, walking back to your happy wedded home to find your wife sleeping with another man, shooting up on heroine and beating your child all that the same time, by which I mean "very disappointing".

Chris: try harder next time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dahsboard Confessionals new album Dusk And Summer is great, bluddie love it!