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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
DC: Redefined, November 13, 2009
So I fired up the new release from Dashboard Confessional and started to listen like usual, in my car on the way to work. After the first 2 tracks (and a couple WTF?!?!? moments) I pulled over at 7-11 to get my coffee and actually had to pop the disc out to make sure I put in the right disc. Yes, I had to do a double take on a DC album.
My experience with DC is pretty extensive. I first heard "The Best Deception" and it hit me at the right portion of my life that I was able to connect instantly. I was hooked from there and have listened to everything Chris Carrabba has put out including his short stint with Further Seems Forever. "Dusk and Summer" was a great album that moved DC in a new direction. It added in more of the actual band and less of the "emo" as it were. With the release of "The Shade Of Poison Trees", that came to be almost like a swan song in a since. I think that was him saying goodbye to the "old ways". That one was for the fans that have been around since "The Swiss Army Romance" and in a lot of ways "The Shade..." was a lot like it when I look back, especially in the sound. It was mostly acoustic and the writing wasn't as sharp, though it was still quite good and had a bunch of standout tracks. It just wasn't a step forward.
So where does that leave us. Well, we have basically the official sequel to "Dusk and Summer" and that is definitely not a bad thing. For the first time the actual band works on all levels. "Dusk and Summer" was a little rocky in parts (mainly the meshing of the vocals to the music) but everything just works here. From the vocals to the instrumentation it seems that this album was written with the music in mind and not just the lyrics. That is a little weird to say considering the Acoustic Disc that comes with the special edition is almost as good as the actual album. Usually it is the other way around with the acoustic tacks being the highlights. Not so here.
"Get Me Right" is a great opener which leads to my favorite song on the album "Until Morning". This is the track that made me realize just how much maturity has taken place since "The Swiss Army Romance." The same general topics of trying to keep what you are losing is still there, but told from a more mature perspective that I can truly relate to. Truly the only other band I can think of that has matured as much as DC over the course of their career (for better or worse) is 311. After listening to this track I realize that DC may lose some of the hardcore fans and honestly I think Chris and Co. are ok with that. They are more mature and their audience should reflect how they portray themselves.
"Everybody Learns From Disaster" is great and generally works. The storytelling from days of old are back but again with a smarter, wittier tone. "Belle of the Boulevard" is a weird one. I'm not too sure what to make of it yet. It is a great song that can truly be interpreted in more than one way and to me that is what makes good music, the ability to interpret it in more than one way while still enjoying it.
Some other highlights are "Alter the Ending", a slowed down version of "Even Now", "The Motions", and "Water and Bridges". Truly though there is very little wrong with any of the tracks presented here and never in a long time have I been truly happy with every track from an album that I purchased. "Hell on the Throat" is a great closer by the way.
All fans should have picked up the Deluxe Edition and got the Acoustic Disc. Again, all the songs are actually great and a few sound a little better acoustically ("Even Now" for instance). With that said, I'm glad it is just a bonus and not the released album. You really need the full band versions to appreciate what Chris and rest of the crew have accomplished here.
A part of me will always love songs like "Hands Down" or "Saints and Sailors" but really this is the album that will be seeing the most play time in my CD player and my iPod now. Like Chris, I have grown up. While I still have some of the same problems and issues as I did almost 10 years ago, gone are the days of the whiny teenager.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Uneven and ambiguous return of DC, December 11, 2009
Has it really been 6+ years since Dashboard Confessional's masterpiece "A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar"? How I loved that album (and still do). After that album, Chris Carrabba decided that arena-sized rock was the way to go but when the 2006 "Dusk and Summer" album failed to meet those expectations (even though it has a number of really good tracks on it), he retreated the next year to the acoustic-only sounds with "The Shade of Poison Trees", and when that album again failed to really connect, Carrabba came to a cross-roads of sorts... what to do next? Now comes the answer.
"Alter the Ending" (2 CDs; 24 tracks; 87 min.) brings 2 albums into one. CD1 brings the full-band version of the album, and opener "Get Me Right" is a great way to start things of. "Until Morning" plays nicely as well. The best tracks on here for me conclude the first half of the album: "I Know About You", an urgent track full of life, just great, then followed by an equally entertaining title track. Unfortunately, the second half of the album falters, with barely a memorable tune, "The Motions" being the best of the bunch. CD2 brings the exact same songs, but simply Chris in an acoustic-only setting, as if he couldn't decide whether this album should be a full-band album or just him. It leaves me scratching my head, frankly, as to what direction Dashboard Confessional is taking.
In all, separate and apart from the full-band vs. acoustic only argument, the album lacks truly memorable songs. There are a couple, but that's it, a very uneven return and an ambiguous one at that. That aside, Carrabba is a great performer. I've seen him in concert before, and would jump at the chance to do so again (by the way, DC is the opener on Bon Jovi's upcoming early 2010 North America arena tour), but this album is not the band, or Carrabba, at their/his best. Buyer beware.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Get the Deluxe (electric + acoustic) version!, November 22, 2009
This album is definitely a sign of how Dashboard has matured in both song composition and lyrical poetry. Songs like "Even Now" give original Dashboard fans the heartfelt acoustic songs that they expect while new songs like "Get Me Right" are so addictive that they are stuck in the heads of old and new fans alike. A wonderful album - and definitely worth getting the deluxe electric/acoustic version!
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