From the first notes of album opener “Get Me Right,” Carrabba sings of a struggle to get home, through a dense forest, to a rundown, broken old place. As the music moves from its first sparse, cautious notes, the song grows taller and larger and until it finally sounds like the very salvation its narrator is seeking. On the first single, “Belle of the Boulevard,” Carrabba sings, “Down in a local bar/Out on the Boulevard/The sound of an old guitar/Is saving you from sinking…” To be saved by music is not a fairy tale. For Carrabba, it’s a very real aspiration, maybe even a work ethic.

“I’ve always looked at music as a way to feel better. I’ve written some sad songs and some happy ones too,” he says. “But the goal has been the same every time: to feel good. To pick up a guitar, to enjoy holding it in my hands, to tell a story, and to feel better after having told it.”

In fact, Alter the Ending might be the most confident, optimistic music in Dashboard Confessional’s entire storied career up to now. It’s the sound of Chris Carrabba finally finding in his own music what everyone else heard from the very beginning, turning this “little side-project” into a decade-long triumph of empathy and truth. But where can you go after you’ve made an entire album about endings?

“I feel like this is the beginning of something new. It’s a really good feeling. And I haven’t felt like this since Swiss Army Romance. I have no idea what will be next, but this feels like a new start.”