DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL - Dusk and Summer

Oh, Mr. Carabba - what is a fan to do? Gone are the days of Chris strumming to himself at a quiet campfire. Like many other fan reviews I have read, the latest Dashboard Confessional CD, Dusk and Summer, misses it's mark. It starts off and you think, "Sweet. About time that I had another Dashboard CD CD in my hands", but quickly dissolves into a mess. Coming off his 'Vindicated' premier to the general public on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack last summer, Chris must have decided that his new direction of music was simply LOUD, boisterous, rambunctious and unrestrained.

From what I gathered in a SPIN magazine article, Chris/DC took 3 years off of recording and at some point, holed up with uber-producer Daniel Lanois of Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and U2 fame. What the two of them crafted is beyond me. It seems like a typical recording session with them went something like this:
Lanois: "All right, Chris, I need you to go higher on this song."
Chris: "Didn't we just do that on the last song?"
Lanois: "Yes but we need to go higher yet."
Chris: "O.K. AHHHHHHHHHH..."
Lanois "Higher..."
Chris: "AHHHHHHHHHH...(no vocal change noted)"
Lanois: "Higher!"
Chris: "AHHHHHHHH...(still no change)"
Lanois: "YES! THAT'S IT! HIGHER!"
Chris: "AHHHHHHHH...(still, nothing)"

And that is that. What follows are 10, mostly similar songs, packed together to form Dusk and Summer. While credit must be given for the few standouts, 'Secrets in the Telling', 'Rooftops and Invitations, a re-hashed version of 'So Long So Long' with Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows and 'Heaven is Here', the rest of the songs are quite possibly the same, just with a few different notes and words. Honestly, you can't tell much of a difference and if you aren't paying attention, the whole CD will be over before you knew what happened. It took me at least 4 full listens to detect changes between songs and what was actually worth listening to.

Check out these mp3s of the best on the album and the Dashboard Confessional myspace page for more.

If you really are compelled, do buy it.

Secrets in the Telling

So Long So Long

Heaven Is Here