Chris Carrabba, lead singer and guitarist of Dashboard Confessional, leaves his “emo poster child” status unchallenged with Dashboard’s fifth album release, “The Shade of Poison Trees.”
Complete with a bleeding apple on the cover (allegory to the bleeding heart perhaps?), the twelve track album features a sound that steers away from the bigger band sound tested in the previous two albums. Since Dashboard formed in 1999 its audience has matured, yet the corresponding maturity of the album is disputable. Let’s just say that a 32-year-old should probably be a bit more emotionally developed.
After four albums, Carrabba is still open-mouthed at the extent of his dramatic physical responses to his love. The album unfolds, exploiting his overflowing emotional vat with each and every song. As to be expected with his classic whiny guitar player image, the emo kid continues with his hard-strummed acoustic guitar, sounding similar to a fourth grade musical enthusiast eager to learn how to play. He seems to think (like a small child) that strumming harder and with more repetition, the message will be put forth stronger. But his messages of love found and lost, love’s firm grasp on every aspect of his life and literally every aspect to be complained about regarding love are driven home by his lyrical style alone. He speaks in choppy lines and seemingly unrelated phrases.
“Fever Dreams,” a bouncy tune, uses the oh-so-unique analogy of love as a sickness, saying that “Fever dreams/they can only haunt you/until the fever breaks.” Plucking teenage heartstrings with a higher pitched and more annoyingly emo sound, the track uses age-old comparisons and the repetitive strumming of a grand total of about three chords. He does employ harmony, which is to be applauded. Addition of that element made the song a bit more listenable.
Percussion is added in certain tracks to add variety, letting you know that the song has switched, because otherwise the listener could be easily deceived. The poppy song, “The Rush,” chants “I love you tonight/and tomorrow we may just feel the same.There’s no reason to blush/There’s only us to keep it between” in the classic theme of “all that matters in love is the lovers.” Gentle synthesizer sounds finish off the track to add a bit of variety, but it is truly too bad that the entire track is made up of the same five lines. Had he chosen to actually express himself effectively, I might have been able to applaud this track for musical variety (compared with the other tracks of course).
I did enjoy one track. I mean, sort of. “Matters of Blood and Connection” details the life of a man who is pretending to be someone else, but really had the upbringing of half of the Wash. U. student body.
“Why do you speak/with that accent?” Carrabba asks, “Everyone knows you’re not from the streets/you went to prep school in Cambridge/with daughters and sons of the privileged elite.” The lyrics made me laugh, as they were so uncharacteristic of the rest of the album.
In short, if you can tolerate about five chords and only those five, the use of the falsetto, a couple cymbal crashes here and there, and horribly depressing lyrics about love, you will be all over “The Shade of Poison Trees.”
Dashboard is holding a contest for fans to create a music video for the song “Thick As Thieves.” The winning director wins $2500 cash, a VIP ticket to a Vagrant (their recording label) gig of his or her choice, and a universal ticket to any and all DC concerts for the next year. If you can find any fans, tell them to enter. I truly challenge them to not only create a video, but win and actually attend any and all concerts in the next year. If they survive without emotional trauma, let me know.
Rating: 1/5
Tracks to download: “Matters of Blood and Connection”
For fans of: Jimmy Eat World