Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Winning Over ALMOST Everyone, 27 April 2003
A truly uplifting album, an amazing mix of angst ridden lyrics with optimistic harmonies pouring emotion with intermittent guitars and bleeding vocals. Powerful lyrics support the easy to relate to subject matters. From love loss and crushes to broken families and suicide. Music to suit pretty much any mood you can be in, it is easy to listen to in a good or bad mood. It suits both sides perfectly almost as though there is nothing to set them apart.Obviously it may not appeal to most who are used to the heavier side of angst and melancholy music, i.e. metal, but I won't rule them out either, so long as you listen to the lyrics and open up you'll hear exactly what you want to here, such is the appeal of Dashboard Confessional. I certainly could not dare to suggest the standout tracks or the simply better one's as no matter who you are any choice is subject to strong bias and it is simply up to you to find your favourite. However "Again I Go Unnoticed", "This Ruined Puzzle", "The Brilliant Dance" and "This Bitter Pill" offer a fair range. I cannot possibly describe how good Dashboard Confessional are, it is different from one person to the next, and chances are my own bias has glorified too much, but it can't hurt to try something new. I have bought many albums with little knowledge and have rarely been disappointed, and the only reasons for disliking this album is the inability to listen to acoustic guitars, emotive and expressive lyrics, or often desolate whines; which all work together in blissful harmony to produce that distinct Confessional sound.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Make-out music! Sort of..., 23 Dec 2004
Maybe it's a streak of stereotypical British cynicism in me, but when faced with an all-acoustic singer-songwriter, usually a pang announces itself inside me that speaks "proceed with caution". Will I remain forever scarred by the shrines to mediocrity that are David Gray or Damien Rice records? The chaps we get here in the UK are, almost without exception, massively undeserving of their success.Lucky old USA then, that they can produce a rising star with the talent of Dashboard Confessional, brainchild of Chris Carabba. Sounding like a grown-up Blink 182, "The Places you have Come to Fear the Most" is a superb collection of songs. Simple yet innovative, difficult yet unpretentious, equal parts heart-warming and heart-wrenching in its familiarity. Lyrically, Carabba weaves those everyday images (boy meets girl, girl tramples all over boy, boy gets sad) with his own eloquent grasp of poetry to create melodramatic anthems of misery. His singing-for-his-life vocal style lends the music a desperate quality making "Places..." a record everyone should have for when it feels like the world's out to get you. Instrumentation is minimal, with Carabba's detuned acoustic guitar the centrepiece for all ten songs, occasionally fuelled by an injection of percussion or even a dainty strings sample. It's difficult to pick a standout track from such a flawless set of songs. "The Brilliant Dance" is a gloriously heartbreaking opener. "Screaming Infidelities" explodes with scintillating power. "Saints and Sailors" fumes with a sarky and incisive lyric, the best on the album. It's a case of "pick a number, 1-10, and enjoy." If "Places..." suffers from anything, it's its own seriousness. This is not a record for all occasions, and sometimes its po-faced musings can leave the listener feeling slightly battered or even embarrassed, particularly on album closer "This Bitter Pill". However, when sampled in the right situation, the record is hypnotically brilliant. Wallow in sadness, and feel better.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strangly, Depressingly uplifting, 15 Nov 2002
I feel genuinly sorry for Dashboard Confessional, AKA: Christopher Carabba. The lyrics throughout "the places you have come to fear the most" describe the emotional turmoil and hurt he has experienced. The strange thing is he pulls it off without making you feel depressed by the end of the album. It is hard to define the brilliance of the album in under 1000 words. The album has a largely acoustic flavour to it but it is by no means simple in the way that many acoustic songs are. It is catchy AND incredibly deep at the same time. "The places you have come to fear the most" has some of the best lyrics ever written which help make it like this. It is an album that I believe, anyone in the world can relate to, you only need to take a look at the discussion board on the DC website to realise this. The lyrics are however, so real, so relatable, and so beautiful that once you know them you suddenly realise how depressing they are. However the way in which DC puts them accross is fantastic and no means upsetting. Those of you reading this listening to your punk CD's shouldnt be put off though! I am a fan of stuff as heavy as "From Autumn to Ashes" and a massive fan of this as well. As soon as I hear some DC I smile inside, :) It really helps get you through everyday life because its just so damn relatable. If your feeling sorry for yourself - buy this album, it will make you feel better, if your not, buy this album, it will make you feel happier! Its like musical drug. - Wallowing in your own self pity has never sounded so good.
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