Dashboard Confessional gets kind of a bad rap. Many people see Chris Carrabba (who pretty much is Dashboard Confessional) as a whiny, heartbroken wimp. These people, I would guess, have not heard "Dusk and Summer."
To be fair, the band's best-known album is "The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most," which is absolutely heartbroken, quite whiny, and more than a little wimpy. The only sounds you hear on most songs are acoustic guitar and some very high, very sad male vocals. To continue being fair, Chris Carrabba wrote the songs on that album after his fiance cheated on him with his best friend. I think a little whining is warranted and possibly necessary in that situation.
In further defence, any heartbroken 18 year old would do well to own "The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most." I have never encountered a better album for the post-dumping wallow. And I wallowed to it well, lo these many (coming up on 10) years ago. It's pretty much what would have happened if Job was from Florida and played guitar and sang with mean, mean head voice. He hits all the main points of heartbreak on pretty much every song. Plus, you can honestly say, "This guy's got it worse than me." Let's be honest; we all wallow, and when we do, this is the background music for it.
Now, back to the album at hand, "Dusk and Summer." For purposes of this blog, I will focus on my two favorite songs from the album. These two most clearly demonstrate the genius behind the album: comparing summer-time to love.
First up, "So Long, So Long." The thing about summer time is that it must end. In fact, I think of all the seasons, summer is most effected by this impending-doom feeling. Everyone knows it won't last forever.
"And I will leave under the cover of summer's kiss upon the sky
Like the stone face of your lover just before she says goodbye
I was certain that the season could be held between my arms
Well just as summer's hold is fleeting
I was here but now I'm gone..."
There are times when one looks at an ended relationship in hindsight and realizes it was doomed from the beginning. Logically, one might think this would help. After all, if it was doomed, why be sad it's over? The problem with that is that you wanted that relationship to work. You invested yourself. The fact that it was doomed means you were out of touch with reality and possibly an idiot. This does not make one feel better. You were so certain you could hold on, and now it's gone. By the way, when he sings that last line, on "now I'm gone" old Chris suddenly jumps up an octave, really driving those words deep into the frontal cortex. Quite effective.
The second song of special note is the title track "Dusk and Summer." This song is the best portrayal of teenage love I've ever seen. Of the thousands of songs written on the topic, this is, in my humble opinion, the best. Ever.
A brief aside: who cares about teenage love other than teenagers? Everybody should. Don't believe me? I've got reasons. Teenagers are a special lot, a perfect balance of absolute conviction and near-absolute ignorance. They know practically nothing about the real world, and yet are absolutely committed to their ideas about the very same real world. So when teenagers fall in love, they do it with no prior experience, no idea what's going on, and the absolute certainty that this is the greatest thing in the world. Total commitment with no reason behind it at all. Once we get older and more experienced we figure things out a little, but there's nothing like that crazed plunge into love that teenagers experience. I think we're missing out if we don't at least remember what that was like on occasion.
The song is again about a guy in a doomed relationship who just keeps holding on.
"You've already lost
when you only had barely enough to hang on"
The song is written in second person, by far the least-used of the persons. Usually it's reserved for hardcore ranting ("You wouldn't risk hurting your reputation to come and talk to me; so you run your mouth like you know what we're about" - from "Human Equality" by Overcome) or death metal horror-movie descriptions (too graphic to be included here). Chris Carrabba takes a gentler approach in telling you what happens to yourself: "She pulled you in, and she bit your lip, and she made you hers."
If you're like me, this makes you remember the beginning. Then when the chorus hits, it makes you remember the end. The overall effect is to transport you right back to 12th grade when you thought you had it all figured out and weren't going to let any lack of knowledge or experience stand in your way. Go listen to the song; I defy you not to be transported back.
