Sworn to Secrecy: Dashboard Confessional's "All the Truth That I Can Tell"

June 17, 2022

It’s like stepping into a quiet coffeeshop at four on a February afternoon: the yellowed lights are low, voices murmur around rustling pages, and somewhere in the back someone sings about moving on in a raw voice over an acoustic guitar. Such is the familiar feeling of Chris Carrabba’s latest album with his iconic emo project Dashboard Confessional. On most of his new album, “All the Truth That I Can Tell,” he’s set aside all instruments and effects from previous albums in favor of a simple acoustic guitar.

All the truth that he tells us is his advice for pushing through difficult experiences. In 2020, Carrabba was in a motorcycle accident that forced him to re-learn the guitar from scratch. At first, playing for more than five minutes at a time was excruciating. Eight months later, in February 2021, he performed live for the first time since the accident. The truths he learned during those eight months are what he tells us in his seventh studio album.

“All the Truth That I Can Tell,” released February 25, 2022, hits all the notes of the emo-rocker’s standard themes: unrequited love, missing love, and love found. But there’s a new-found wisdom to this album. In “The Better of Me,” there is exhausted maturity. Carrabba’s contentedness is found in “Me and Mine;” and, in the title track, the heart-on-sleeve songwriter keeps some heart for himself.

Carrabba is an elder emo, and his expertise is on display throughout the album. Phrases teeter on the brink of rhythm in songs like “Burning Heart” and threaten to collapse as his voice quivers at the cliff’s edge. There’s no danger, though; the veteran songwriter is in complete control. His phrasing directs the listener’s attention to the words he sings. It’s a trick he’s used since his early days as Dashboard Confessional. When each song pulls back from apparent collapse, though he has nothing to prove, he is vindicated once more.

Highlights:

• “Burning Heart:” Hearts burn from words spoken, words left unspoken, too much pepperoni pizza when you’re older than twenty-three, moving on, and not moving on.

• “Here’s To Moving On:” What are the keys to Carrabba’s remarkable resilience? Fighting less, living more, sleeping well for once, and letting go.

• “Sunshine State:” If you’re nostalgic for the classic emo “missing her” song, this one fits the bill nicely.

• “All l the Truth That I Can Tell:” Carrabba has told us the secret to his resilience, and in the final track, he keeps some secrets to himself. He’s told us all he can tell.

Putting something behind you can only be done one day at a time, so find peace in the little things. Carrabba shares this hard-won lesson: “It’s funny, I thought for a bit there / I’d never be able to deal / But I make some coffee / And I’ll take a shower / And I start to heal.”

So, if you’ll excuse me, I have a coffee to drink and a shower to take, here in the Sunshine State.