Dashboard Confessional
Dusk And Summer
Release Date: Jun 27, 2006
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative, Emo
Record label: Vagrant
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Album Review: Dusk And Summer by Dashboard Confessional
Fairly Good, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Dusk and Summer -- a cohesive album divergent from the modern-rock collection of songs on 2003's A Mark, a Brand, a Mission, a Scar -- finds Dashboard Confessional's path to maturity leading them, weirdly enough, back to their roots. Whether or not this is a reaction to mainstream success, Dashboard is still very much a full band, but the album is gentler and falls much closer to the feeling of The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most. Not only does it include more tracks with simpler arrangements that occasionally now include piano and violin, the general sonic vibe resembles more of its earlier work, just more seasoned.
Based on rating 2/5
Outselling their emo (as in "emotional hardcore") peers to score a no 1 album in the US, Dashboard Confessional depend almost entirely for their appeal on vocalist Chris Carrabba's boyish good looks, longing expressions and credibility-boosting punk rock tattoos. There are so many pictures of the frontman in Dusk and Summer's packaging that the music seems to be playing catch-up. However, the people who know how to market teen angst have fiendishly placed Carrabba's Robert Smith wail right up in the mix, while polishing the band's guitars to an identikit FM-radio sheen.