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Dashboard Confessional: The Shade Of Poison Trees

Contributed By: The Messiah
Created On: Thursday, 22 November 2007
Hits: 479

The Shade Of Poison Trees

Chris Carrabba is one of those musicians who wears his heart, wholeheartedly, on his sleeve. It might be because back in 2001, when the populaire ‘Places You Have Come To Fear The Most’ was written, he was the emotional dish of the day, spawning a whole heed of emotional eunuchs frittering away on the Dashboard forum with their co-dependency issues on display for all and sundry to admire.

In the six years that have come to pass, Carrabba hasn’t released anything of similar (acoustic) ilk that has induced such emotional outpourings as attributed to that notorious record. He may indeed be misogynistic; perpetrating myths of evil, cheating nymphets who trample well meaning boys' hearts but it is a narrative that forms the strength of his backhand; swiftly executing an ace across the court.

Carrabba's inertial outpourings formed a particularly emotive form of narrative (journal) song writing which pretty much contributed to the post-rock emo label that followed. Lyrics such as “I've written a note, it's pressed between pages that you've marked to find your way back. It says ‘Does he ever get the girl?’” or even, “This kiss that tells of other people’s lips will be of service to keeping you away”. Carrabba’s popularity was formed from his ability to share these humiliating moments with his fans and for him to revel in the shared shame of such teenage tribulations.

‘The Shade of Poison Trees’ is the album that should have followed ‘The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most’, only it didn’t. Singles such as ‘Where There’s Gold’ follow this formula perfectly; exhibiting that whimsical whingeing to its core. ‘Fever Dreams’ however is surely a step in the right, proverbial, direction with Carrabba employing actual metaphors, “Fever dreams can only haunt you ‘til the fever breaks” before launching into “I’ve lost all I can lose to your skill and your game, but you’re so contagious.”

Yep, we’re back to the bench! Surprisingly, ‘Clean Breaks’ is at least an attempt to get away from this retrospective preoccupation with some cheater girlfriend, and musically is a fairly nice transition from the norm (ignoring the lyrical content - ‘I need your skin to ruin me’).

Trouble is, following up the strength of one album (six years, and two further albums later), with one laden with the same emotional ties, isn’t the most savvy thing to do, especially when those original fans are six years older, and indeed wiser. Don’t get us wrong it’s not a bad album; it’s just (roughly) five years late.