Here is a not-so stellar review of the Dusk and Summer from Mammoth Press. They also have a review of current label-mate, tour band member [1] John Ralston.

The reviewer gives it a 5 out of 10.

For the most part, I agree with it but hey, I’m still a fan if not this site wouldn’t exist… right? right? ok…. :)

If you’re a longtime Dashboard Confessional fan and were hoping for a new release that would guide Chris Carraba’s sound back to the spare and urgent acoustic dynamite of his early recordings…this isn’t it.

We’re all friends here, and we can admit–just between us, I promise not to tell your friends in the cafeteria at lunch–that Carraba is really not that great of a singer. What made him appealing was not his talent but his sincerity, the raw urgency and vulnerability that turned a purely acoustic song like “Screaming Infidelities” into an anthemic arena-rock singalong. Sure, maybe some of you had days where you thought maybe he should get over it, find a new girlfriend, pick himself up and shake the dust off and head back into the world; but then your significant other would dump you via text message in homeroom and there you were, right back to stuffing yourself into the headphones and cranking The Places You’ve Come to Fear the Most as loud as it would go.

[2] click here to read the rest of the review