Breaking from the missionary-style post-hardcore of his main band Further Seems Forever, Chris Carrabba's Dashboard debut immediately delves into the tortured indie-folk that would become his stock in trade &#8212 the very first song on the album is about a broken heart. Recorded on the cheap with just an acoustic guitar and some gut-level, definitively emo vocals, nearly every other track on The Swiss Army Romance follows suit. The album may be cast in only one shade, but this isn't a complaint as much as a testament. Carrabba consistently stripped his emotions to the bone before every crushed-out teen with a newly purchased Ovation came around to cop his prose. These spare bloodlettings were barely touched when indie-punk giant Vagrant successfully fought with the album's original imprint, Drive-Thru Records, to reissue the disc a few years later; at least the messy label drama produced two pop-oriented bonus tracks (including the synth-y "This Is a Forgery") for Dashboard completists to pore over.