• Record Label: Merge
  • Release Date: Oct 12, 2004
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

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  1. rachelo
    Feb 4, 2005
    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.
  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 come close. Place this one somewhere just below "Impasse" and just above "Since" in terms of overall quality.
  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.
  4. JasonP
    Oct 18, 2004
    10
    Fantastic. As consistant and all-consuming as Devotion + Doubt. The man continues to evolve as a songwriter, yet plays his strengths with a winning hand.
  5. JSmoke
    Oct 18, 2004
    10
    This cd is an amazing work....subtle flourishes of steel guitar and piano, percussive sweeps, amazing lyrics, and of course, that voice. One of the year's best.
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 15
  2. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. There's a swagger about Dents and Shells unseen since Since.
  2. Spin
    75
    The songs remain the same: clear-eyed musings on breakups-as-existential-crises. [Dec 2004, p.124]
  3. 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.