dan_smee

So, a band I became ashamed to say I loved as a teenager. Their last offering was mediocre, as was the one before. Still I have an attachment to their earlier music as it was a big part of my High School years, as my friends and I were about the only people who knew of them until they were on the Shrek 2 and Spiderman 2 soundtracks.

So I downloaded this album expecting not much, just out of interest to see if, like so many others they continued their descent into irrelevance and crapness.

I love this album. First of all, there are 2 discs, electric and acoustic versions of every song. Great idea. Second, the songs are the strongest they have written since The Places You Have Come To Fear the Most.

This album is easily top 10 of 09 for me.

Key tracks: Get Me Right, Everybody Learns From Disaster, Alter the Ending, Hell on the Throat.

7.9 / 10

u2popmofo

I was a big fan of them in the pre-electric days. They kinda made themselves blur together with other similar acts once they went electric, unfortunately. It's cool they did an electric and non electric disc, I'll have to keep my ears open and try to catch some of the new songs on the radio or online.

IWasBored

i hate dashboard, but i realized somehow i know all the words to "vindicated" when i heard it on the radio the other day.

mikal

sorry Dan. this is one band i won't give another chance. i just thought they were so horrible opening up for U2.

elevated_u2_fan

this

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BVS

This is one of those bands that I personally don't own or really like all that much, but I can't really fault anyone for liking... I catch myself not changing the channel when it's on, and he can write a catchy tune.

So I guess I'm just indifferent.

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MyBloodySleeve

gvox

I totally agree with this. However, recently became fond of two songs of another band that I hated when they opened for U2. I didn't even realize it was them.

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VintagePunk

Spill, plz.


Yeah, after 6 shows straight seeing Dashboard Confessional, and hearing way more than I ever wanted to regarding his "best day ever," and his "worst day ever when his girlfriend dumped him," and whatever, that was enough of his whiny emo ass to last me a very long time. And the funny thing is, I went into the shows not minding them.

Also, after the Avril Lavigne thread, I'm hearing Vindicated in my head to the tune of Complicated, which is quite a treat, let me tell you.

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u2popmofo

Again, their early "acoustic only" material was fantastic. Before emo became a hiss and a byword, they received a fairly significant amount of acclaim. I recall many hipster and more indie than thou type publications (Magnet, etc) sang their praises as well. It's sad they became so blah once they went electric, and people ended up apparently hating them. It's odd how many artists end up imitating the imitators of the genre they initially had so much influence on. It's sad the "emo" tag ended up having so much baggage attached to it as well, how diverse and even interesting it initially was has been completely forgotten by most (or not even realized by most fair weather music fans).

That all said, I'd still rather see Dashboard than the vast majority of other openers U2's had on the last few tours.

dan_smee

To anyone lost faith, they arent wonderful live, this album moves a long way away from the emo thing.

This is genuine rock, with a big u2 influence on the big tunes.

Give it a go, you wont be disappointed