Dashboard Confessional – The Shades of poison Trees

• 26th Oct 2007

Despite the fact that this new album opens with several acoustic laden numbers, you can’t escape the American Emo on what could otherwise have been seen as progression.

The song ‘Thick as Thieves’ is a pure example of just what is holding this already established band of moving into anything resembling uncharted territory. With lyrics that like to ramble through clichés of the vocalist being a saint and a sinner, not breaking easily – all the way through imagery of smoking guns etc. Not to forget the chorus that joyfully breaks into: ‘So keep your mouth shut!’

Trouble is that anything new or adventurous doesn’t happen until much later on in the album, but then is completely destroyed by predictable choruses which are probably the bane of the Emo existence. So long as it’s lively, whiney and you can jump to it then it’s easy to produce.

The good news then is for the market that is already out there. And by today’s standards it is still huge. The bad news is that DC will have to take their chances that they don’t just get added to a stack of CDs and then forgotten about.

It’s a shame as not every band who can pick up an instrument should be pandering to a teenage angst crowd. Especially when they themselves have been growing up. Are we to assume that DC will be around playing this sort of tripe in their 40’s, or can we hope that in future they will be avoiding precisely that.