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Dirty Side Down Image
Metascore
73

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 10 Ratings

  • Summary: The 11th album for the jam rock band features a cover of Vic Chesnutt's "This Cruel Thing."

Top Track

North
Some folks look for trouble, Some look for belief Baby, you look for Jesus I look for relief Used to talk about the weather, Used to think it all... See the rest of the song lyrics
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Overall, the group's singing is mixed too low (vocals are not its strong suit anyway), but the music is consistently strong.
  2. Dirty Side Down is a tad long, but when the songs are this good, WP gets a pass. This is easily the band's finest studio offering in over a decade.
  3. Its new album, "Dirty Side Down," plays to all of Widespread Panic's strengths, from the intricate weaving of John Bell's and Jimmy Herring's guitars with John Hermann's keyboards to a stylistic sweep that spans from the epic, prog-like opening suite "Saint Ex" to breezier fare like the title track and the spritely gallop of "Clinic Cynic."
  4. On its eleventh studio recording, Widespread Panic sounds more like itself than it has in years. Dirty Side Down is the sound of a band returning to the comforts of home.
  5. Dirty Side Down is an uneven record at times, but given that the band has been hard-pressed to reproduce the energy of its live performances in the studio, Down's nimble rhythmic shifts and the playful lead-guitar work of Jimmy Herring provide a zip sorely lacking on the last two releases.
  6. Science or not, Widespread Panic's eleventh offering shows that after all this time, they've got something figured out.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    58
    The emphasis here is still on instrumental interplay; great for gearheads, a bit sleepy for everyone else. [28 May 2010, p.70]
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of
  2. Mixed: 0 out of
  3. Negative: 0 out of