The real Dashboard Confessional is back, well sort of anyway. After the disappointing “Dusk And Summer” set last year it seems that Chris Carraba and crew have ditched the overly polished stylings of that album and have dug out the acoustic guitars again, a move that is most definitely to be applauded. 

In The Shade Of The Poison Trees should have been the successor to 2003s breakthrough “A Mark, A Mission, A Scar” as it builds on that album's combination of full band arrangements and intimate acoustic vignettes with a  much more natural and direct feel and in every way has a much more Dashboard Confessional air about it, something that “Dusk And Summer” definitely lacked. 

With the instrumentation being pared back a little more this time it lets the vocal delivery and lyrics take centre stage again which was always a strength and this is augmented more and more by intelligent use of backing vocals that reinforce the intensity of the verses or sweeten the choruses, as on “Keep Watch For The Mines”, or simply provide additional colour alongside Carraba's vocals on “Fever Dreams” or  the title track, for example. 

Sometimes it doesn't work so well anymore, “Matters Of Blood And Connection” doesn't seem to be quite as cutting or direct as the DC of old would have been in critiqueing someone trying to create false street cred but, along with the overly cloying “Clean Breaks”,  this album has few low points and heralds a welcome return to the things that made Chris Carraba so vital in his Dashboard Confessional guise in the first place. Good, honest, direct & heartfelt acoustic music that can speak directly to you, isn't it time you attended confessional?  I'll see you there!

Let us know your views on In The Shade Of The Poison Trees

 Track Listing

Where There's Gold
Thick as Thieves
Keep Watch for the Mines
These Bones
Fever Dreams
The Shade of Poison Trees
The Rush
Little Bombs
Light My Own Fires Now
Matters of Blood and Connection
Clean Breaks
Widows Peak

Line Up

Chris Carraba – Vocals/Guitar
Scot Schoenbeck – Bass
Jeff Lefler – Guitar
Mike Marsh – Drums