A 3D Listening Experience...That's Like, Candy For My Ears

I waited impatiently for October 2nd to arrive. I had pre-ordered the new Dashboard Confessional release, The Shade of Poison Trees, and could't wait to get my hands on it, and the free t-shirt that came along for the ride. So imagine my surprise when another CD entitled Sorry Vampire fell out of my long awaited package. Now here's where my brutal honesty comes into play: I took one look at the cover, didn't recognize the name, and threw it into my desk drawer. And now here comes the part when I get to tell you that I could kick myself for doing such a thing.

This sophomore release is a gem in so many ways. Mixed with Charles Dye, who has worked with artists like Ricky Martin and Aerosmith, Sorry Vampire was engineered to have a 3D sound, unique enough to give the listener a new experience with each repeated listen. Over the course of two years and numerous studio sessions, the record was born. And truly, no two songs on this album are the same. While each song contains layers (sometimes up to 25 or more, like the track 'Beautifully Disarmed") the time and patience it took to completely finish each track is astonishing.

And that's before you even bring the lyrics into play. If I could write songs, I'd want to write them how John Ralston does. His ability to play on words allows for witty and genius songs that you can't compare to anything that anyone has released in a while. His ability to leave tracks open to personal interpretation coincides fantastically with his instrumental openness, and so allows for difference in opinions to each listener every time they find themselves bobbing their heads to one of the tracks.

If anything, I learned a big lesson. Don't toss the unknown CD to the side. You never know when it could happen to be the disc that you can listen to over and over and over again (yes, it gets three over's, it's that good). I'd advise you not to make the same mistake, so listen to the tracks posted to the right or scurry over to his myspace page and give the tracks some well deserved attention.