Dashboard Confessional
Dusk And Summer

THE REVIEW

This brand new album by Dashboard Confessional leaves me a bit perplexed, but I can't help but notice that there's a notable change in direction by the quartet led by Chris Carrabba, leaving behind a rather disappointing "A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar," where, in my humble opinion, Carrabba showed he didn't know how to handle electric guitars and drums (despite being in Further Seems Forever in his early years), to embark on much less "emo" sounds, but definitely more suited to many contexts that are characterizing the current story of Dashboard Confessional.

First of all, the album turns out to be a "global distribution" reinterpretation of Carrabba's specific sounds, which plays against, in my opinion, the old fans who were used to songs like "The Sharp Hint of New Tears" or "A Plain Morning" which, while approaching these new pieces of 'Dusk And Summer' in compositional capacity and similar sounds (for instance, the melodic vocal interludes and tone shifts), distinctly stand out and highlight the more "rock-commercial" nature of this album.
Let's say that, if the first two albums were great and the third (Unplugged) established them commercially, the last three (including the EP "Vindicated") continue this streak of commercialization of the "Dashboard Confessional" product, dividing into: a reworking of sounds for "A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar," a stepping stone for a more commercial rock in terms of "Vindicated," and finally, confirmation and affirmation of the Carrabba + Commercial Rock formula (because 'Dusk and Summer' has really very little emo...) = success (at least on paper)...

The album starts with a song that could be compared to the opening song of "A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar" (namely Hands Down), titled "Don't Wait." "Don't Wait" is emblematic of this LP, the song that can act as a logical summary for the entire album, and, in my opinion, the song on which the producers focused the most to publicize the album (it's no coincidence they already made the video, and in the U.S., it's playing non-stop on Mtv), because it's the most catchy, and the most "melodic-commercial" of the entire album. The album continues with new sounds for Dashboard Confessional, much more "rock", the second track on the Album, namely "Reason to Believe" sounds like a song by My Vitriol, and "Rooftops and Invitations," for that initial riff and double voice continuing throughout the track, approaches pieces and sounds reminiscent of Hardcore Superstar (a bold comparison?) or perhaps a rock akin to Feeder.
Continuing along this line of attitude, the album also offers some good tracks, such as the ballad "So long, So long" featuring Adam Duritz (who is the Counting Crows' singer, for those who don't know) and with the use of a perfectly fitting piano in that track (as Americans say, a piano-driven tune), and the acoustic piece "Dusk And Summer" that recalls the old Carrabba of "Swiss Army Romance" that was so beloved and was unsurprisingly considered Carrabba's best album, or perhaps a track like "Several Ways to Die Trying", which despite being in a very disappointing album, is a very beautiful piece, almost a sort of "lone sniper" of the album, a track that, despite the album heading in one direction, goes the opposite way.

Even "Currents" is a song you wouldn't expect from Carrabba, given that series of chords in the verse that haven't been heard, if not fleetingly, in previous songs, if it weren't for that very predictable chorus it would be a nice song, but precisely for its predictability at the level of "structural resolutions of the track" it deserves the black mark of the album...
The album concludes with a strange "Heaven Here" that I invite you to listen to, for the electronic arrangement it possesses, and that strange drumming that hammers throughout the track. A track that nonetheless possesses a typical melody of Dashboard, and Carrabba's vocal performances worthy of the best soprano of the Maria Callas school (not to overdo it, right!...)

An album which, despite the fact that it might win the Dashboard Confessional some gold records and possibly even a Grammy, undoubtedly emphasizes more and more Chris Carrabba's desire to move away from his origins to venture into the extreme commercial that will make him a sort of "Max Pezzali" from America.
If I have to rate this album without considering years of Dashboard Confessional history, I'd give it a 7 out of 10 for the effort in changing style and genre, but if I have to keep in mind a fundamental fact I mentioned earlier (which is the commercialization of Dashboard Confessional), I can't give more than a 5 out of 10, and thus translated into a deRating, a 2 stars out of 5 is more than fair...