Chris Carrabba has been screaming infidelities and breaking up since 2001's "The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most." Just mention the name Dashboard Confessional and the response is a chuckle from most anyone.

The truth is, most listeners have cried along to Carrabba's romantic distress at one point or another. No matter how it's twisted, Carrabba drives the emotional sleigh that is Dashboard Confessional. And despite the clichés , there is something timeless that Carrabba does with a pen and guitar.

That said, every artist is entitled to grow. But the band's latest album, "Alter The Ending," tries to reinvent the group's sound in a way too far departed from the things we love about crying in our empty apartment.

Where we would usually enjoy heart-wrenching lyrics and a melody, we hear an album overwrought with boring breakdowns and misused electronics -- elements better suited to the group's independent neighbors.

The album starts off promising, with an eerie guitar riff foreign to the standard Dashboard track in the first song, "Get Me Right." The song then builds up to the standard Carrabba croon, but does so smoothly.

The album does do some good things with songs like "Belle of The Boulevard," a very standard Dashboard song that brings the melody up and down in just the right places. And "Even Now" is the kind of honest song that Carrabba is good at, a simple guitar part that slowly builds up without too much instrumentation or unneeded crooning.

But in "Blame It On The Changes" we find Carrabba is still a torn man as he sings "Can we can hold out?/Can you hold on?/Because I need you more than you know now." These are the kinds of lyrics that people make fun of him for.

The album's tracks are chock full of songs that just sound over-produced and cheesy. With the exception of a few key tracks, "Alter The Ending," is just another mediocre attempt at growth. The good news -- the band chose to release an acoustic version of all the tracks that are much more in tune with all things Dashboard.

In "Water and Bridges," Carrabba sings, "But I've been paying for it since I drove my girl away." His girl is not the only one he's driving away with songs like this.

Grade: C

Download: "Belle of the Boulevard,"