ALBUM REVIEW: The Best Ones Of The Best Ones – Dashboard Confessional

DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL broke through the scene with their pivotal The Swiss Army Romance, representing what made the early 2000s so enriching; the whiny emo songs that you’d listen to while you scrolled through MySpace, cut your own bangs and hated everyone in your town including yourself.

To their credit, DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL, along with the likes of JIMMY EAT WORLD, DEATH CAB FOR A CUTIE, ALKALINE TRIO, BLINK 182, and much later MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE and MAYDAY PARADE would take the reins, arguably helped redefine emo from its hardcore late 80s love child that began with RITES OF SPRING. Early DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL had the same rage-filled yet depressing vocal and lyrical side, but enveloped in soft acoustics and stripped back tracks that seemed like subtler blow, but made way for some hard-hitting lyrics that made emo more ‘angsty’ in its vocal techniques and sadder in its lyricisms – it kicked the emotional back into emo.

Still, not many can stay they lived to tell the tell and DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL have spanned their story across 20 years of success with seven albums and a handful of prestigious credits to show for it. It almost begs the question, what can’t they do? Their next endeavour takes them to a finely catered compilation album that keeps fans at the heart of it. If you ever wondered what it would be like to relive your emo phase, buckle up and throw this on so you can remind yourself that you have tear ducts.

While compilation albums are seemingly straight-forward in comparison to the production of a whole new album, we’ll give this one credit in the effort it makes to be more than that. It does seem to have a strong hold on the more popular tracks, such as Screaming Infidelities from 2001’s The Places You Have Come To Hide and Vindicated, which was also featured on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack, we also see the appearance of some lesser known tracks including some of the Florida band’s earliest works off of their So Impossible EP circa 2001. Another note that fans may come to appreciate is the MTV Unplugged sessions making a feature, they too have amassed over 130k views on YouTube and bring a comforting tone to the album, separating from it being just another generic compilation album.

Though we can understand the reasoning behind it, on first glance the track list assortment is offsetting. There aren’t too many expectations for a compilation album, but the assumption is that an album spanning across someone’s whole career would start from the very beginning rather than the second album. Though it might be confusing to digest at first, stick through it because breaking away from the generic story arch is one of the shining moments of this album. Older fans with a hankering for nostalgia will find it even more rewarding to kick off with an already classic track from their second album, only to be surprised with even older tracks as we move along.

Compilation albums can be seen as an obvious cash grab, and there’s already enough unfortunate ones on the frontline of criticisms to go around. However, it’s evident that this album does everything to stray away from the clichés. The quirky song assortments and older callbacks make it refreshing and exciting – it’s something different in an album that feels like it should blatantly obvious and yet it’s not.

Also, and more obviously, as the tides change bands loosen the reigns and expand onto new horizons. This album is really from start to finish – well mostly, the lack of The Shade of Poison Trees and Covered in Flood echoes throughout the album. Nonetheless, listening to it back to front gives you the full realisation of the creative journey the four-piece have been on. DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL makes their transition from whiny emo to vivacious alternative pop-rock and maturing lyrics seem almost seamless, but it doesn’t undervalue the work gone into it either. Each track has been hand selected to highlight the pivotal years of growth, change, and experimenting with new sounds. If you were a fan, listening to this would make you feel like a proud parent.

It feels like this album can be best described as a nostalgic rollercoaster. With such a long-strung career everyone has found DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL at a different point of their era. For newer fans, listening to this is like reliving the feeling of finding them for the first time, then going back and listening to all their previous tracks. For older fans, you can relive your emo phase and walk along that journey of each album from start to finish once again.

But that seems to be the overarching point of it all, this album is for the fans. Don’t be mistaken, anyone can enjoy this album and it would actually be a great way to understand the career of DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL. But as a fan, you get the additional bonus of reliving your true emo phase and crying along the way. It is a great album and a dreamful trip down memory lane for anyone who’s been following DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL all these years. One of the few compilation albums that left room for surprises.

Rating: 7/10

The Best Ones Of The Best Ones is out now via Hidden Note Records.

Like DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL on Facebook.