Review Summary: His words are not sugarcoated, but laced with bitter honesty.
Dashboard Confessional is Chris Carrabba's method of expressing his broken feelings and sharing it to the world, from writing deep, angsty lyrics to singing all of tbose in a raw voice to strumming the guitar until the strings hurt your ears...that's his style of showing us how shattered he is. Dasboard's sophomore album, The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most, offers ten tracks filled with emotions that people would typically be embarrassed to mention in public, what more to sing and record it to be played over and over again, but Chris does it all with daring talent. He's pretty gutsy, and that's what makes him, and this record, real.
His honesty shines through in all the ten tracks. The album opens with "The Brilliant Dance", which is one of my favorite tracks in this album, along with the fast-paced song "Again I Go Unnoticed", one of the best songs in the whole record. The singles,"Screaming Infidelities" and "Saint And Sailor" are also quite good, with the latter starting off with an interesting sound, giving the album a new approach and a fresh vibe.
Chris' songwriting ability is commendable and expertly executed, especially in being able to tell a story. One could almost taste the bitterness that polishes his lyrics. His words are not sugarcoated, but laced with bitter honesty. His ideas, though some of them have the tendency to be repetitive, works all throughout. The slight repetition may be due to the fact that Chris wrote all the songs for the album, but he tries to tackle his emotions in different approaches, and puts himself in strategic scenarios that results to a very good listen. Some of the songs are short, giving the album a quick finish at a span of 30 minutes, at the most. Still, the length is not a major problem, as the album leaves the listener full and contented after a dose of ten, emotional tracks.
Dashboard's sophomore album may not appeal at all to some people, especially if they are not a fan of Chris Carrabba's singing, and will probably categorize it instantly as whiny or whatever, but I really love this album, and the emotions that come with it everytime I listen to this man with a whole lot of brokenhearted stories to tell. The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most has its shining moments, and it also has its weak spots, but its imperfections provide for a rather wonderful accessory, and basically what makes this record real.
