Dents And Shells
by Richard Buckner
  • Record Label: Merge
  • Release Date: Oct 12, 2004
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  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. 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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  3. The Guardian
    80
    This is one of those hushed, moody, late-night records - though with much more going on than mere melancholia.
  5. Spin
    75
    The songs remain the same: clear-eyed musings on breakups-as-existential-crises. [Dec 2004, p.124]
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  6. 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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  7. 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.
  8. Tiny Mix Tapes
    80
    There's a swagger about Dents and Shells unseen since Since.
  9. 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.
  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. Stylus Magazine
    67
    Its unity keeps it solid, but it also keeps Dents and Shells free of surprises.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. Neumu.net
    65
    A set of tunes blessed with melody but hardly immediately memorable.
  16. Junkmedia
    80
    Dents and Shells matches the intensity and concision of Impasse, while adding an organic, spontaneous feel to the proceedings.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 7 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 7
  3. Negative: 1 out of 7
  1. rachelo
    Feb 4, 2005
    10
    Simple rolling melodies humm with a hungry discomfort. Insults and invitations, humbly passive spite, an aggressivly condesending 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
    Nov 24, 2004
    7
    Richard Buckner will probably never make another album as moving as "Devotion + Doubt," but he'll continue to make records that sort of 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
    Oct 30, 2004
    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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