UNIVERSAL CITY, California -- He won't explain the meaning, but Chris Carrabba has chosen A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar as the title for the next Dashboard Confessional album.

Carrabba has demoed more than 40 songs for the album and will record 14 or so with his band in January, he said.

"It's a little more dynamic, but it's been increasingly getting that way since we started," Carrabba explained backstage at KROQ-FM's Almost Acoustic Christmas (see [article id="1459076"]"Audioslave Deliver Like Santa Claus, Creed Booed At Radio Show"[/article]). "With every EP we've done, it's gotten a little more diverse. And [this album will be] very rich and eclectic sounding."

The singer/songwriter's lyrics, which have tended to center on heartbreak, will also diversify on the follow-up to 2000's The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most.

"Some of it is really, really dark, [such as] songs about death and losing people to tragedy," Carrabba said. "And some of it is a lot more hopeful."

Carrabba, whose long year of touring wrapped on Saturday (see [article id="1458051"]"Dashboard Confessional Unite Crowd In Perfect Disharmony At NY Show"[/article]), wrote the new material himself, but his band will have a hand in the final production.

"They are very creative guys, so they dress them up really nicely. They're really melodic, and they come from a place as writers [where they help in] livening up the songs, making them more beautiful."

A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar will likely be released in the spring, Carrabba said.

Dashboard Confessional will release the MTV Unplugged CD and DVD set on December 17.