Grow up,Dashboard

Dashboard Confessional burst onto the mainstream music scene in late 2001 with "Screaming Infidelities" and helped usher in the emo movement. At that time, Dashboard wasn't much more than Chris Carrabba and an acoustic guitar. Since then, it has matured into a full band that churns out adult-contemporary radio hits, including last year's "Stolen." Many of the band's oldest fans pleaded for Carrabba to return to his intimate acoustic roots, and early this year he did just that by secretly recording The Shade of Poison Trees. While the entire band plays on Shade, it's definitely a retro release. Whether or not it's enjoyable depends on which Dashboard the listener prefers. \nIf you're looking for classic Dashboard, "Little Bombs" and "Keep Watch for the Mines" are the best songs to begin with. Each has the acoustic vigor that quickly transports the listener back to 2002. Carrabba plays the guitar so hard his fingers could be bleeding at the end, and his vocals soar higher than most of the songs from Dusk and Summer.\nHowever, some of the songs that try to recapture the magic fail miserably. "Fever Dreams" has good guitar work, but half-assed lyrics such as "Fever dreams / They can only haunt you / 'Til the fever breaks," make you want to hit skip instantly. "Matters of Blood and Connection" is a two-and-a-half minute diatribe about rich kids, which raises the question of whether Carrabba has really grown up at all. \nOddly, the song that strays away from the rest, "The Rush," is the strongest on the record. Don Gilmore's production allows every little twitch and twinkle to be heard, and the entire band shines because of it. When Carrabba gushes "And I'll know I'm alive / Give me some teeth / Give me something/ Unforgettable" for the last minute of the song, you can easily picture it playing at the end of any MTV show about bleached blondes near the beach, but it also demonstrates that there's a reason Dashboard is a full band now: They're better that way.\nThe Shade of Poison Trees will be heralded by people in their early 20s because it will remind them of the time they listened to "Screaming Infidelities" after their crush wouldn't dance with them in eighth grade. And while there are a handful of tracks here that do allow for some reminiscing, the record as a whole is a cheap step backward that exists only so Carrabba can immaturely whine instead of write good songs. Maybe Dusk and Summer wasn't his best effort, but at least it showed a maturation process that Shade completely negates. It's time that Carrabba and his fans grew up.