Music ReviewDashboard Confessional
"The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most"
(Vagrant)
Three stars
It's clear, just by listening to "The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most", that Chris Carrabba has had some serious heartbreak in his life. Better known as singer, guitarist, and songwriter of Dashboard Confessional, most of the 27-year-old's songs mourn dying love. Carrabba sings these songs with a wailing voice full of torment, while playing them on an acoustic guitar. Thus, Dashboard Confessional's music is refreshing, giving the sensitive rock audience something with which they can relate, compared to the usual testosterone-driven, heavy music of most mainstream bands.
At times, though, Carrabba's whiny vocal delivery is irritating; he sounds like a squealing pre-adolescent boy. On "This Bitter Pill", the last song on the album, he sounds like he's on the verge of insanity. But as Carrabba strains out the words, "This feeling of despair is never wearing out," it is realized that no one can blame him.
The album's two best songs are "Screaming Infidelities", Dashboard Confessional's radio hit; and "The Best Deceptions". These two songs are about cheating, but have their differences: the vocals on the former are mellow, while Carrabba makes frequent use of his high vocal range on the latter track.
Overall, Dashboard Confessional knows how to emotionally hit you where it hurts. Carrabba's songwriting is like good poetry. Unlike most pop music, rhyming isnt a main focus, so the lyrics are specific and have more impact to the listener.
As a side note, Dashboard Confessional recently took its emotionally sensitive music to the Islands; Carrabba and company performed at Honolulu's World Café on November 5.
