Dashboard Confessional

I don’t see what all the fuss is about. If you listen to the hype (and the guys in the suits are pushing the hype big time on this one), you’d think that Chris Carrabba, the attractive, clean-cut yet dark and mysterious (sporting impressive sleeves of tattoos on each arm—so dangerous) front man for Dashboard Confessional is the next Kurt Cobain, saving rock ’n’ roll with his emotional songs about love and blah, blah, blah. It’s a decent bunch of pretty songs with interesting quiet to semi-loud arrangements, but it falls flat in comparison to more lively counterparts in the emo world (Jimmy Eat World) and is completely crushed by the energy of the really fun emo kids (Get Up Kids). And lyrics like “My hopes are so high, that your kiss might kill me. So won’t you kill me? So I die happy,” don’t really merit “voice of a generation” status.