Dusk and Summer

Dusk and Summer is the fourth studio album by American rock band Dashboard Confessional.

With the release of A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar (2003), Dashboard Confessional solidified its line up of vocalist/guitarist Chris Carrabba, bassist Scott Schoenbeck, guitarist John Lefler and drummer Mike Marsh. The album charted at number two on the Billboard 200 The group contributed the track "Vindicated", which was produced by Don Gilmore, to the Spider Man 2 soundtrack The track marked a change from their past work as it included a piano. Carrabba said the next album would be a piano driven effort with contributions from the other members. In December, the group got together and played through the songs they had. Though Carrabba considered a lot of it unsatisfactory, he figured out the vibe for the next album: "I have this passionate desire to sort of explore space [as opposed to] compounding everything into these driving parts." In February 2005, Carrabba scrapped an album's worth of songs as he felt they were too safe: "[F]ans probably would have liked those songs. And people who weren't would have had the same complaints as ever." Carrabba spent two weeks in Florida of over 30 songs.

Through a mutual friend, some of the demos ended up in the hands of producer Daniel Lanois. The demos inspired him to come out of retirement, which he had been in since working on All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000) by U2. Despite having already having plans to record, Carrabba was invited to Jamaica, where Lanois was, to discuss the songs. He flew out and the pair spent a week talking about songs. A day after returning home, Lanois was interested in producing the album. In April, the group worked with Lanois and recorded 20 songs. Half of them at Lanois' home in Toronto, Canada, and the other half at Lanois' other home in Silver Lake, California. In between these support dates, the group performed a few club shows. Prior to starting the tour, Carrabba said the album required mixing. Despite this, material was still being recorded up to January 2006. Sometime afterwards, Carrabba decided to rework the Lanois produced material with Gilmore, while retaining some of Lanois' contributions. In March, Gilmore and Carrabba recorded an album's worth of songs. Andy Wallace mixed all of the album, except for "Don't Wait" (mixed by Gilmore), at Soundtrack Studios in New York City. He was aided by Pro Tools engineer John O'Mahony and assisted by Mike Scielzi, Paul Suarez ad Jan Petrov. Ted Jensen mastered the recordings at Sterling Sound. Adam Duritz of Counting Crows provided additional vocals on "So Long, So Long", while Susan Sherouse contributed violin and vocals.

Discussing the album title, Carrabba and his family used to drive an hour and sit on a beach. Eventually, he "just kept finding myself back there, finding inspiration." Musically, Dusk and Summer has been described as arena rock, and emo channelling the guitarwork of U2 guitarist the Edge, was written in a dressing room on the U2 tour. It was completed in a few minutes; he said it talked about "seizing and acting on what you dream, not just dreaming about it." "Slow Decay" is about a soldier readjusting to home life after returning from war. It was based on two friends of Carrabba's and a third person, who he witnessed on 60 Minutes.

On April 8, 2006, the group's next album was announced for release in June and the track listing was revealed. On May 5, the album's title was announced as Dusk and Summer. Around this time, a music video was filmed for "Don't Wait" in California with director Rich Lee. The video features Fernanda Romero and Carrabba; Carrabba makes a choice and breaks up with her, before he is pulled "at light speed through time, almost to the end of the world". Throughout the video, he realizes his mistake and is taken back to undo what he did. before being released to radio on May 23. Following this, they appeared at the HFStival and did an AOL Session, where they performed "Don't Wait". A music video for "Don't Wait" was released on June 6. Dusk and Summer was made available for streaming via AOL on June 26, 2006, before being released a day later through Vagrant Records. The Target edition included a DVD, which featured three live performances and an interview. In early July, the band went on a tour of Canada with Say Anything and Ben Lee, "Rooftops and Invitations" was released to radio on August 29. From mid October to early December 2006, the band went on a US tour alongside Brand New. On December 11, 2006, the band appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien; they also featured on Loaded on February 7, 2007. Dusk and Summer was reissued on May 22, 2007. This edition included a new version of "Stolen", "Vindicated" and live versions of "Ghost of a Good Thing" and "The Best Deceptions". It was promoted with an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. "Stolen" was released in Australia as a CD single on July 25, which featured two versions of "Stolen", and a cover of "In a Big Country" by Big Country.

Dusk and Summer debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 134,000 copies in its first week. By August 2006, the album had sold over 300,000 copies.