Dashboard Confessional: Summers Kiss [EP] : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Armed with an acoustic guitar and a composition book full of vulnerable love poems, Dashboard Confessional's Chris Carrabba has become a hero among the emo kids over the past two years with his heartfelt, headstrong make-out music. Now with Summers Kiss Carrabba and his full-time touring band bring a new dimension to the DC sound, fleshing out four tracks from his 2000 album, Swiss Army Romance. Confirming suspicions that a bigger sound might make Dashboard even stronger, Carrabba's emotional purges reach new depths on "The Sharp Hint of New Tears," courtesy of effectively placed drum fills and piano strokes. Fusing breakup lyrics with a roaring, cathartic instrumentation on "Ender Will Save Us All," DC even bring on the rock, a downright courageous move at this point in the band's otherwise stripped-down career. Carrabba's reedy tenor may not have much range on "Living in Your Letters," but his lyrics make up for it ("Breathe deeply from this envelope/It smells like you.") And the evocative swoon of "Turpentine Chaser," this EP's highlight and among Confessional's best performances, proves that great songs can get even better.