The Places You Come To Fear

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ALBUM INFORMATION

Total Tracks: 10   Total Length: 29:47

eMusic Review

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Trevor Kelley

eMusic Contributor

04.22.11
Dashboard Confessional, The Places You Come To Fear
2003 | Label: Vagrant Records

This album inspired a thousand sing-alongs. With The Swiss Army Romance, Dashboard's lead songwriter, Chris Carrabba, drafted the heart-on-sleeve acoustic punk for which he would become cultishly adored &#8212 and with this emo classic, he perfected it. Places 'greatest virtue is its almost rapturous embrace of the torturous woe that follows our most profound romantic failures. And legions of teens understood, chiming in en masse when Carrabba played these songs live. Places… benefits from Dashboard's leap to indie-punk powerhouse Vagrant, which finally allowed enough of a recording budget to afford a rhythm section, but it was bare, essential ruminations like "The Best Deceptions" that roped fans well before Carrabba's appearance in automobile ads would test their devotion. Still, when a polished-up version of "Screaming Infidelities" (originally from Swiss Army Romance) crashed the modern-rock charts, it was an encouraging sign that Carrabba's career might actually outlast his pain.

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Great Band, Great Music, and Meaningful lyrics

jcfrale

i think that DC has great music, great lyrics, and great voices. their harmonies are beautiful, and not all of their songs are acoustic. they have catchy beats

user avatar

The Gold Standard of Emo

dirtyjerseymusicjunkie

This album more or less broke emo into the mainstream, which is either good or bad given the whiny self-indulgences in which much of that particular genre tends to wallow. However, what this album has in abundance (and much of its imitators have lacked) is a sheer and utter honesty, an emotional nakedness that is both unabashed and unpretentious. Do the lyrics occasionally sound like high school poetry? You bet -- but good, the angsty stuff of first love and spontaneously effusive imagery that only the truly innocent and naively enchanted can create. As such, it speaks with a universality that transcends both its genre as well as the sparse arrangements (which serve, in fact, to expose the open emotional wounds around which the lyrics function as a frantical triage). Deriders of the album for its unwavering committment to acoustic arrangements or for its angst have failed to evaluate this album on its individual merits and have, instead, taken aim at what the genre respresents.

user avatar

No No No.

dan.kirby

I enjoy heartfelt music and even emo music occasionally, but DB just gushes emotional pain in the form of boring melodies and painfully high vocals. Listening to DB is like eating too much Brandy Butter - It's sickly sweet and you feel ill after eating it, but at the end of the day there is no lingering "it was worth it" feeling. Don't waste your emusic credits.

user avatar

chicks aren't the only saps

Ruby

Well... in a way, it's refreshing to know that guys can be just as sappy and whiny on the guitar as all those guitar-girl bands. Sort of like and indie-acoustic-guitar version of Garden State.

user avatar

Not as good as the other albums

shinkaide

While I really like DB, I gotta agree with some of the bad reviews here. Most of the songs here sound half-baked, in terms of lyricism and the songwriting in general. The only tracks that I really liked here were "Screaming Infidelities", "This Ruined Puzzle", "Saints and Sailors", "Standard Lines". The other songs aren't really what I'd call bad, but they're not good either.

user avatar

A merciful two star rating

sevenbaby87

This album plays like listening to a love-lorn teenybopper who just pulled down a used Epiphone off the shelf at your local music store. The only thing missing here are the beginning measures of "Stairway to Heaven." I guess this album works if you are the above type person, or you're filming a new comedy/drama for the WB. I gave this a listen hoping for something more that I didn't get. Over hyped for sure.

user avatar

It's OK.. I like it...., I love it... I'm hooked

musicmoggy

Two contrasting reviews above and below. So matbe here's the decider. These are emotional songs. Ok the guys not a perfect singer, agreed. The songs are similar sounding on first listening - a problem with using the acoustic guitar as the prime (and often only) instrument for every track. But these are great songs because the lyrics are brilliant, the singer works tonnes of emotion in the delivery and repeated listening starts work through your psychic to the point of addition. Oh enjoy, enjoy.

user avatar

Disappointing

inselaffe

IMHO, this guy can't sing. Some of his lyrics display a bit of 'cleverness', but most come across as bad poetry. The songs are very samey. This stuff obviously appeals to some people, but I'd suggest listening to the samples (any one will give you a guide to the rest really); I couldn't do this due to a firewall at work, so I went by the enthusiastic eMusic write-up. I'm wishing I went to Pitchfork first ...

user avatar

the one great album

free-slave

this album is very good-his other stuff is mediocre i think-DL any of the following-1,2,3,5,6,8,9,10-and then go check out rocky votolato-his stuff seems more real to me-but not catchy like this-to each his/her own

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