Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 9
  2. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. The Fine Print runs just under an hour and is drawn from the outtakes of four different albums, yet it’s as cohesive and entertaining an album as Drive-By Truckers have ever released.
  2. Mojo
    80
    The songs range from good to essential. [Oct 2009, p.101]
  3. Uncut
    80
    "George Jones Talkin' Cell Phone Blues" "The Great Car Dealer War", and covers of Tom Petty's "Rebels" and Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" are among highlights of an album that many of the DBTs' peers would cheerfully claim as a career peak. [Jan 2010, p. 106]
  4. Like most odds and ends collections, The Fine Print is uneven and doesn't match the consistent quality of the Drive-By Truckers' usual work, but nearly all of these tracks are too genuinely good to have been left to gather dust, and even the DBTs' scraps can make for a pretty satisfying meal.
  5. For a stopgap release, we couldn’t ask for anything better, and in fact The Fine Print spoils us somewhat, as we’re ultimately left wishing more bands would put this much care into such a compilation.
  6. 70
    Cliche or not, Drive-By Truckers’ leftovers really are better than most bands’ main course.
  7. Under The Radar
    70
    By turns dark, poignant, and outrageously funny, it really is hard to quibble with The Fine Print. [Fall 2009, p.75]
  8. Unsurprisingly, the rarities on The Fine Print could make a good album, but the oddities are often distracting.
User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. Apr 7, 2012
    10
    This may be the fifth-best DBT release after 'Pizza Deliverance' (their best), and the holy trilogy of 'Southern Rock Opera', 'DecorationThis may be the fifth-best DBT release after 'Pizza Deliverance' (their best), and the holy trilogy of 'Southern Rock Opera', 'Decoration Day', and 'The Dirty South'. Lord knows it's better than the scattershot releases after Isbell left the band and in fact it makes me wonder how "When the Well Runs Dry" and especially "TVA" could have possibly been left off any 'Truckers LP's. Maybe he was at such a writing peak that they would have been a little too 'Jason', I mean. he dominated 'Dirty South' as it was. I'm so glad they released these tracks, they were truly one of the best bands in the world from 1998 'til around 2006. Full Review »