4Play: Dashboard Confessional, Say Anything, Switchfoot, Lou Barlow

Jan. 17, 2010

Dashboard Confessional - Alter the Ending - Interscope
You’ll get two CDs instead of the usual one with DC’s latest offering - CD one presents full-band versions of all of the songs, while CD two is frontman Chris Carrabba performing acoustically. It’s interesting to present the album this way, as it showcases very definitively which songs are strongly written and which aren’t. Standouts include the synth-inflected “Until Morning,” “Get Me Right,” “Everybody Learns from Disaster,” the familiar-sounding, melancholy “Even Now,” and the title track. There are no great new sounds here, but decently solid songs from a solid band.


Say Anything - Say Anything - RCA
Produced by Weezer/Everclear/Fall Out Boy cohort Neal Avron, Say Anything’s third set is a surprisingly curse-free, pop-hook-focused collection of songs that focus on spirituality and romance (perhaps a result of Max Bemis’ recent marriage?) That doesn’t mean the band’s gone all adult-contemporary though; they still have just enough sharpness to keep old fans happy, and may gain new fans with these less aggressive tunes, which include the radio-friendly, neo-jazz tinged “Less Cute,” the sincere “Crush’d,” and the unusually-arranged “Do Better.”




Switchfoot - Hello Hurricane - Atlantic
Switchfoot make their debut at their new Atlantic Records home with another set of songs that effectively presents their distinctive mix of alt-rock and radio pop with another round of anthems, polished rockers, and ballads. “Needle and Haystack Life” opens the set with it’s arena-big feel - you can almost see the cell phone lights waving in the air. “The Sound” offers a singalongable chorus, as do “Bullet Soul” and “Your Love is a Song” - overall, its a positive, energetic lineup of tracks that do justice to a much beloved and accomplished band.




Lou Barlow - Goodnight Unknown - Merge
Already legendary for his work with both Dinosaur Jr., Folk Implosion, and Sebadoh as well as his own more recent solo work (a standout being his mostly-acoustic set Emoh), Barlow shows no signs of stopping, especially given this, his latest album, which is chock-full of lo-fi underground hits. Laced with more of the musician’s conceptually poetic, thought-provoking lyrics, the songs range from the somnolent “Take Advantage” and the folk-poppy “The One I Call” to the crashing-smashing title track and the machine-gun stuttering rhythms of “Gravitate.”