I read that the new Dashobard album was good stuff. But saying that this midget has "model good looks"? Please!
Confessional: Between Rock and a Heartbreak
By Shannon Zimmerman
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, August 13, 2003; Page C05
Like the overearnest classmate who writes a page and a half of "poetry" in your yearbook, Dashboard Confessional's Chris Carrabba is an iffy proposition.
On the one hand, the guy's got an achy-breaky heart and an apparently deep-seated need to tell you all about it. On the other, it's easy to suspect that Carrabba's Mr. Sensitive routine is just a time-honored ploy to get girls. After all, what's a guy with model good looks and more tattoos than a Lollapalooza road crew got to be so weepy about?
Sometimes, though, Carrabba's woe-is-me act can be pretty convincing. He's the darling of indie-rock's "emo" scene, thanks mainly to 2001's "The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most," a sad-sack opus pockmarked by angsty rants with titles like "Again I Go Unnoticed" and "Screaming Infidelities." The latter tune in particular racked up heavy rotation on alt-rock radio, and, a mere two albums into his career, MTV rewarded Carrabba with his very own episode of "Unplugged 2.0."
Now it's follow-through time. Judging from the manifesto-like title of Dashboard Confessional's third studio long-player, "A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar," Carrabba thinks that this time around, lots of folks who weren't paying attention before are sure to tune in now.
And he may be right. The new album is tighter and slicker than Dashboard Confessional's earlier work, and it's also more straightforwardly "rock." Mostly gone are the acoustic guitar strumfests that earned the singer-songwriter the obsessive cult following that chants along to every song during concerts. Now, turned on and plugged in, Carrabba and his band are vying for the same weekly-allowance dollars that might otherwise go to the likes of Blink-182 or even Avril Lavigne.
Which means that Dashboard Confessional doesn't waste a second here. The album opener, "Hands Down," is easily the disc's best tune, a percolating, pop-punk thriller laced with Carrabba's whisper-to-a-scream singing and a frenetic rhythm attack that practically dares you to run in place. Even better, for once in his life, Carrabba isn't such a mope-a-dope. "My hopes are so high that your kiss might kill me," he intones like the hopeful romantic he ain't. "So won't you kill me, so I die happy."
Fat chance. Mr. Misery reverts to form elsewhere, waxing just as morose as ever. He follows the Paxil-ated "Hands Down," for instance, with the aptly titled "Rapid Hope Loss," wherein the band ricochets gamely between crunchy power chords and jangly arpeggios as their leader's love life flames out. "Now that I can see you / I don't think you're worth a second glance," Carrabba snipes just before the song's genuine fist-pumper of a chorus kicks in.
And so it goes, with Dashboard Confessional alternating drippy love-conquers-all head fakes ("As Lovers Go," "Carry This Picture") with embittered post-breakup screeds ("Ghost of a Good Thing," "So Beautiful"). The latter are more convincing, but regardless of which angle he's working, Carrabba's newfound knack for arena-ready melodies rarely fails him.
The guy may be rock's current king of pain, after all, but he's savvy enough to know that if you really want to bring the heartache, Bic-flicking anthems will almost always do the trick.
Originally posted by Robert Pollard:
You can take one off if we can add Dashboard Confessional. [/QB][/QUOTE]
