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Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional does acoustic emo better than anyone can possibly do it, so when somebody does try and do that, it doesn’t really hold up. It sounds like it, but it’s just not like it. It’s kind of like New Coke. Secondhand Serenade on the first record was basically New Coke. Most of the time it was John Vesely on an acoustic guitar singing, that’s it. On this record a welcome change happened and the benefits of that welcome change have exploded. Secondhand Serenade made a record using more than just an acoustic guitar and he’s reaping benefits for it. A hit radio single- “Fall For You” and a couple in line that could do well in that sense are up too. There’s legitimate percussion, other instruments, and more layers in Secondhand Serenade’s “A Twist In My Story,” thus making it a better record and more appealing to emo and pop music lovers a like. The acoustic stuffs not all gone on this record- it’s still here in a lot of places but it doesn’t define John Vesely and Secondhand Serenade, it’s another dynamic. With “A Twist in My Story” Vesely (Secondhand Serenade) needed to be more than one dimensional, and that’s what happened. Overall this is a good CD from start to finish with a few boring moments in between, but if you didn’t like the last album, give this a set and there’s a pretty good chance you could get into Secondhand Serenade.