When Dashboard Confessional started in 1999 as a side project from Chris Carrabba’s band, Further Seems Forever, it was bare, emotional and acoustic – eventually capturing the imaginations of teenage “emo” kids everywhere.
Nine years and four full-length albums later, Carrabba is getting back to those roots under the Dashboard Confessional moniker, with the Oct. 2 release of “The Shade of Poison Trees.”
The album was recorded over 10 days in Florida with producer Don Gilmore, who produced Dashboard’s last album – the underachieving “Dusk and Summer.”
Poor sales of that album were rumored to contribute to the jump to nostalgia, but perhaps it is a yearning to recapture the signature sound that elevated Carrabba’s career.
But at age 32, has Carrabba lost touch with his audience – and is he on a never ending quest to find his emo niche?
Possibly.
As a whole, the album isn’t mind blowing, leaving listeners with something to really cry about. “Poison Trees,” subjects a half-hearted attempt to rekindle the essence of 2000’s “The Swiss Army” Romance and 2001’s “The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most.”
The one redeeming quality is the upbeat lyrics and arrangement in tracks such as “Thick as Thieves” and “Little Bombs.” But that alone can not save the watered down effort from drowning in its own sea of mediocrity.
Endearing teenage fans will still hoist the emo king’s latest album to much fanfare and shed a tear with his every word, but in the scheme of things, Carrabba failed to find what he was looking for.
This release may appeal to the next batch of “emo” kids but it is not suitable for grown-ups.