Lopez Blogs

The northern America leg of the lovely Maroon 5’s tour gets the hives. Britain and Europe get Dashboard Confessional. Conveniently enough both acts have brand new albums to promote that won’t sell as well as It Won’t Be Soon Before Long. So what are they like? Well, I do adore Chris Carraba and his acoustic emo musings that really set the stage for recent successes like Plain White T’s and to a lesser extent McFly and Rooney. Hands Down is one of my favourite tunes that gets constantly played around my house, and even Darren (ew, no, guitars ~ he is so SlippyDisco!) quite likes it. Their last album Dusk And Summer went a bit electric on our asses, but tracks like Stolen and Don’t Wait were released in acoustic version and their beauty and melodies shone through. It is back to basis on Poison Trees though and it comes across as a lovely acoustic Chris solo album. Lead off single is the rather scrumptious Where’s The Gold and as happens, it is the first track on the album and sets the mood fairly well. To move forward, DBC have looked back to the past and drawn on their strong points ~ emotive lyrics, gently unassuming but pretty melodies and Chris’ powerful vocal style. There are throwbacks to the influence of the Beatles, luscious ballads in the form of Matters of Blood & Connection and songs that smack you in the mush with their brilliance (most notably Clean Breaks). It’s not their strongest album to date, but it’s a step back in the right direction. Conversely, while I am uber-aware of DBC’s back catalogue, I have no experience of The Hives and have only checked them out because of the M5 connection. They have a striking visual appearance that seems to tie into the theme of their music, which fans class as “garage rock”. Their fourth album (my first of theirs) outdoes the Beatles and Prince by being called The Black and White Album and is led off with single Tick Tick Boom, which tragically isn’t the Fresh Prince cover version I was hoping for. However, i think there is a backlash against this band that I am missing by only listening to them now – people complain they are too cartoonish and have not moved on, whereas to me their sound is new and fresh to my ears (albeit in a “i’m sure i’ve heard this before” way). The pharrell tracks give their rock a bit of funk (most notably on Well Alright), they crib mercilessly from the strokes (It Won’t Be Long) and wig out totally on songs like You Got It All Wrong and Hey Little World. It’s fast it’s furious, it’s marginally addictive and totally at odds with the DBC sound. Album wise i give the edge to DBC, but as an opening act for M5, i think the Hives win out. They are so my new favourite band!

· DBC potential singles: Where There’s Gold, Poison Trees, Keep Watch For The Mines, Matters of Blood and Connection