If Helen of Troy was the face that launched a thousand ships, then Chris Carrabba was the guy that launched a thousand dopey emo boys cresting the wave paved by Dashboard Confessional's seminal 2001 album The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most. The album was a milestone moment for sad, downtrodden dudes who could write hard-hitting, spite-filled acoustic songs. Carrabba spoke for the heartbroken who wanted to sing sad songs but turn the knife in at the time- with great effect. While The Places You Have Come To Fear the Most was the watershed, it was actually his debut, 2000's The Swiss Army Romance, that had already proved his ability to master this craft. It is still perhaps, his finest record- unbothered by MTV appeal and radio charts.
His success post "Screaming Infidelities" (The Places You Have... version) propelled him into the spotlight and while his songs became bigger, his bitterness and spite slowly eroded as his music became more accessible. Now all these years later, Carrabba has decided to revisit three of his less acoustic albums, 2003's A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar, 2006's Dusk and Summer, and 2009's Alter The Ending, to give them a more "old-school" Dashboard makeover under the appropriate title Now Is Then Is Now. Stripping them of their electric, full-band composition, the immediate response to listening to the 2019 versions of these albums is that they finally do sound like songs that would have naturally come after his first two albums. The original versions had a few hit songs "Hands Down", "Belle of the Boulevard", "Stolen", but the majority of these releases were so watered down that you'd have trouble remembering or picking any, in particular, to stand out amongst the tepid rock/alternative offerings that they shared the airwaves with.
These new versions are a nice reminder of Carrabba's once-unique songwriting and acerbic nuance that made his songs stand out in the first place. It is most evident in the songs outside of his hits- where once bland songs like "Reason to Believe" are given a little acoustic venom. Even softer songs like "Bend and Not Break" sound much better in their stripped back guise. The new version of Alter The Ending (an album when originally sounded like it was made to soundtrack every WB teen show of its time) shows that underneath all the candy floss alterna-pop, lies the black heart of a biting voice (how much better does "Everybody Learns From Disaster" sound?) and bitter strings.
Dashboard's best "big song", 2004's "Vindicated", is a nice inclusion to the reworked Dusk and Summer. Along with it comes a version of the title track that features its original lyrics. Carrabba has said that he's preferred the original version of "Dusk and Summer", and that he wished he had kept the original lyrics; "I found the original handwritten lyrics to Dusk and Alter before there was any critiques leveled at them. I looked at them and those were some of my best lyrics I've written. I should have known that and trusted myself. I was able to correct a mistake…"
That last sentiment perhaps, best summarises Now Is Then Is Now. Not that these three albums were terrible to begin with, they just lacked that distinct personality that Carrabba had exhibited in his earliest material. They're not suddenly great, but now they're closer, at least aurally, to the work people found interesting in the first place. Listeners of Dashboard who first gravitated towards the material found on the So Impossible EP or The Swiss Army Romance, did so because the music was not only accessible but distinctly personal with an acoustic nonconformity that became his signature. His music is best served with a healthy spoonful of venom and anger- piloted by his voice, often lost amongst the orchestrated full band sound and calculated pop of his work since. He's been able to recapture that only on occasion- not ironically on the acoustic The Shade of Poison Trees- but now, as it seems, what is old is new again. And thankfully, like most things in life, the tried and true, the old and sure, remain the better option.