DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL MTV Unplugged (Vagrant) Rating: NN Rating: NN
The way I see it, the Unplugged formula peaked in the mid-90s. Time was, the recordings were actually unplugged — stripped-down versions of grungey rockers. Remember the intimate and interactive perfection of Nirvana’s kick at the can? (That cover of Bowie’s The Man Who Saved The World was unparalleled.) Too bad the Unplugged album by saccharine mainstream emo kings Dashboard Confessional is pointless. The Boca Ratonians have a place on every mopey Midwestern American teen’s suicidal mix tape, and all those angsty kids showed up for the Unplugged session, Hot Topic studded cuffs ‘n’ all. And they knew all the words. How do I know this? Because you can hear every single blasted nu-emo kid in the crowd singing along on this carelessly produced recording. Why buy a disc to hear the second-grade choir’s off-key version of the album tracks? On a positive note, it does distract from frontman Chris Carraba’s painfully shrill whining.