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Dents And Shells
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Dents And Shells Image
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 7 Ratings

  • Summary: The sixth album for the indie-folk singer-songwriter was recorded in Texas and Arizona with a cast of up to eight backing musicians.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Tiny Mix Tapes
    80
    There's a swagger about Dents and Shells unseen since Since.
  4. 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.
  5. Spin
    75
    The songs remain the same: clear-eyed musings on breakups-as-existential-crises. [Dec 2004, p.124]
    All this publication's reviews
  6. Blender
    70
    [Dents] is, by Buckner's standards, gentle. [Nov 2004, p.130]
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  7. 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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See all 15 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  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.… Collapse
  2. 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 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.… Expand
  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 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.… Expand
  5. 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.
  6. 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.… Expand