Dents And Shells - Richard Buckner
Metascore
77 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
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  1. Pitchfork
    80
    Dents and Shells is Buckner in top form, using a broad brush to manifest his enigmatic poetics, hallucinatory atmospheres, and melodies that appear and evaporate like breath exhaled onto cold glass.
  2. Lost At Sea
    80
    Dents and Shells is human in the best and truest kind of way: it is the work of a man, appreciative of feeling and progress, warts and all.
  3. Junkmedia
    80
    Dents and Shells matches the intensity and concision of Impasse, while adding an organic, spontaneous feel to the proceedings.
  4. Alternative Press
    80
    It's moody as hell, with an aching, nameless despair and all the intimacy of a crack-up. [Jan 2005, p.108]
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  5. The Guardian
    80
    This is one of those hushed, moody, late-night records - though with much more going on than mere melancholia.
  6. Tiny Mix Tapes
    80
    There's a swagger about Dents and Shells unseen since Since.
  7. Splendid
    80
    Far more mysterious and (perhaps not coincidentally) alluring than most Buckner outings, Dents and Shells is a claustrophobic comedown album wrapped in disillusion and sorrow.
  8. Austin Chronicle
    78
    Adding to the pages written by Elliott Smith and Lou Reed, Buckner is the modern age wrapped up in the frustrations and sympathies of a wanderer.
  9. Spin
    75
    The songs remain the same: clear-eyed musings on breakups-as-existential-crises. [Dec 2004, p.124]
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  10. Blender
    70
    [Dents] is, by Buckner's standards, gentle. [Nov 2004, p.130]
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  11. Billboard
    70
    Although this is not Buckner's masterpiece, it's a beautiful window into the head of someone who writes from the heart.
  12. Dusted Magazine
    70
    If Dents and Shells stands apart from Buckner's oeuvre in any way, it's in the prominence and evenhandedness of its instrumental arrangements.
  13. Stylus Magazine
    67
    Its unity keeps it solid, but it also keeps Dents and Shells free of surprises.
  14. Neumu.net
    65
    A set of tunes blessed with melody but hardly immediately memorable.
  15. Mojo
    60
    Picks up where 2002's Impasse left off, with Buckner at large in a dusty, wide-screen landscape of brushed guitars, weeping pedal steel and decorous strings. [Dec 2004, p.114]
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User Reviews

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User Score
9.2 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 6 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. rachelo
    10
    Simple rolling melodies humm with a hungry discomfort. Insults and invitations, humbly passive spite, an aggressivly condesending contribution to the very walls he laments about. A beautiful bad dream that is slow to wake.… Full Review »
  2. BenjaminBunny
    7
    Richard Buckner will probably never make another album as moving as "Devotion + Doubt," but he'll continue to make records that sort of come close. Place this one somewhere just below "Impasse" and just above "Since" in terms of overall quality.… Full Review »
  3. Nick
    8
    Another solid release from RB - a grower - I found Impasse more immediate, but there are a couple of real gems here.
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