Dashboard Confessional - All The Truth That I Can Tell

The title ‘Here’s To Moving On’, a lead track from this eighth Dashboard Confessional album, might show a thematic look to the future from Chris Carrabba and assorted collaborators, but it’s likely the nostalgic tint across ‘All The Truth That I Can Tell’ that’ll prove its key quality for most. You don’t need to have followed the group across their two-decade lifespan to predict where both melody and rhyming pattern will go at any point, or just when another fist-to-chest moment will arrive. ‘Sleep In’ has the requisite attention-to-trivial-detail recalling of a past romance; ‘Southbound and Sinking’ is an attempt at Springsteen driving rock; ‘Sunshine State’ there to remind us Chris is, in fact, a Florida Man. The self-titled closing track is a sprawling five-and-a-half minute vague epic. How this translates depends on your level of cynicism: it’s either aural comfort food, or all just a bit, well, obvious. It’s written to a formula for sure. But it’s one that’s served them well, nevertheless.