Going to fade...
The cover art is certainly interesting, as is the cd itself. You cannot fault Christopher Carrabba in the fact that ‘A Mark. A Mission. A Brand. A Scar’ shows him in his most honest, deepest moment yet. But it does seem like he has slipped into the mind frame that many artists find themselves in - CDs will sell once you have a name regardless of quality, so giving the listener some variety is not necessary. Many of the songs on ‘A Mark...’ sound familiar because they all use the same framework, but this only makes songs like ‘Hands Down’ appear much better than they really are. The structure of the lyrics is often boring, and the subjects spoken of are tiresome. However, this is what Carrabba does best, so expecting him to stray too far off this path is not fair, for he is at the forefront of the ‘Emo’ revolution sweeping across America and into the UK. It has become an ugly word of late, but perhaps the name callers should step back and see what drives their favorite bands to produce music. For most bands, the same emotions drive them to their creativity. The vast collection of fans that follow Dashboard Confessional worship the sheer volume of feeling packed into each song. They can look beyond the worn out guitars and see the music for what it is - pure emotion. For them, ‘A Mark..’ will be another feather in the Dashboard hat, but for some of us, the album will fade away from the public eye rapidly just like the faded, broken tape on the front of the CD.