Dusted Magazine's Scores

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For 3,272 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 53% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 42% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: 100 Ys
Lowest review score: 0 Rain In England
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,656 out of 3272
  2. Mixed: 581 out of 3272
  3. Negative: 35 out of 3272
3272 music reviews
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    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    No Waves
    It lacks the thrill of seeing Nace stalk the stage, balancing Gordon’s cool command with understated menace, let alone the body English each needs to exercise to procure the sounds that they get out of their guitars. It also lacks the contrasting spectacle of the experimental films that the duo often projects upon the rear wall of the hall. What you get instead is a slightly murky recording that filters their outsize rain of blows and ends up conveying solid representation rather than out-of-body transcendence.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Christ Illusion
    The good news is that this is the band’s strongest music since Seasons in the Abyss. The bad news is that, compared to their vaulted ’80s output, the album lacks intensity.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    All Hits: Memories
    White, who is deeply respected by his peers, makes some clever moves on All Hits: Memories which clear the way. The first move is to turn toward free jazz, where solo percussion is a bit more familiar than in indie rock. Without doubt he has the chops, too, shifting between groovy phrases and episodes that expand and branch rhizomatically.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mountain Battles
    Mountain Battles gets less right than Pod or Last Splash did, but hits the target more often than Pacer or Title TK. Either way, it's probably a bit better than you expect.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Guider
    Much of what lends the album distinction is the tension created between the band's bold, confident projections and the more delicate core at their center. At times, that tension can be disorienting.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Natural History
    Natural History is at its best when it's at its most focused.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Outside Love
    Outside Love, two years later, is another solid effort with a handful of quite good songs--and only a few embarrassing ones.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Human Don't Be Angry
    Later in the CD, Middleton makes room for his own voice, and there's something very powerful in the way his rough, organic morose-ness combines with the bright glow of electronic instruments.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Riposte
    At times, there can be an over-reliance on an organic-sounding push-pull rhythm here; on the surface, a few of Riposte's songs do have a tendency to blur together after a few listens. But when everything comes together--as on the aforementioned "Outt!," which builds and builds, effectively ending the album on an exhausted, triumphant note--it's a mesmerizing project.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Darker Than Blue
    A visceral and intriguing record, and one that doesn’t always gel, but it at least stands by it’s own convictions.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Power of Rocks
    There are two distinct types of songs on The Power of Rocks: the herky-jerky, dada-ist contraptions described in the first two paragraphs and a sort of luminous dream pop that might remind you of the Green Child.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Eleventh Hour
    His Eleventh Hour streams seem to glorify a pre-evolved hip hop.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ripely Pine
    Ripely Pine is overloaded with sound, lurching with sudden dynamic shifts, swiveling from one melodic idea to another, trembling with strings, gleaming with brass, fractured into colored shards of bright feeling.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In Dub
    These tracks are surely less orthodox than starting from the masters (properly name-checked in the liner notes), but even the experiments that don’t quite pay off are worthy listens. And anyone will find more than enough here to make this worth their while.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Varmints
    Varmints is an expansive, surprising listen for which sonic left turns can be taken for granted.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Strange Weekend
    Porcelain Raft's airy concoctions work best when you're not thinking about them.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Embrace
    The technical virtuosity on display on Embrace is something to appreciate, but the delicate balance between their austere and manic moments, the way they bridge hazy folk and psych so frequently, needs a little more refinement.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kala
    Inconclusive. Kala plays as mixed media pastiche, a barely restrained amalgam of ideas that are hardly exhausted by beats or flow and double and triple as political references.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Into the Blue
    Perhaps the most obvious way that this album reflects the COVID lockdown, however, is in its weirder, more idiosyncratic second half, which is, incidentally, the best part of the record.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pumps!
    The stylistic ground covered on Pumps is a logical progression for Growing and leaves them with a number of interesting places to go from here.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Desert So Green
    What’s key here is that Winged Wheel is travelling together, as a unit. The eclecticism in mood proves that they’re enjoying the voyage.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    We Have Sound
    Most of Tom Vek’s influences are at least fifteen years old and easily triangulated. But he’s unencumbered by nostalgia. We Have Sound is so difficult to isolate from Vek’s ass-backwards charisma, I wonder if the man might be a visionary.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Last Days Of Wonder
    The layered caramel of [Brett's] voice stays thick from track to track, but finally, it's Rennie's poetry that gives Last Days Of Wonder its legs.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    There Is Love In You
    There is Love in You, his first solo full-length in half a decade, is rooted in beat music, but perambulates all of those former infatuations in an expected but enjoyable way.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ta Det Lugnt
    While it is undeniably a good record, reaching into the stratosphere of excellence at points, Ejstes' overall modus operandi seems more akin to outright homage at times than any sort of exploration of the means and methods of vintage '70s rock and its application in a modern context.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Concretes
    What's perhaps most interesting about the album is that it steers clear of most indie rock tropes.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Way and Color
    Though this is an enjoyable listen and a vast improvement on their debut, the promise of where they could end up is its biggest appeal. Stay tuned.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Centres
    If Craig can manage to maintain his unique delicacy of sound, while pushing his melodic capabilities, he could achieve something special. Yet, if he allows pop elements to take over, instead of remaining as hints and references, he risks becoming simply another producer penning groovy, soulless hits for electro-pop scenesters. In order to remain distinctive, Craig will need to keep the balance he’s struck here firmly in mind.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Marry Me
    In the studio, it’s a totally different beast--a little soggy with orchestral coloring and the 24-track fuckery often seems rote. Taking St. Vincent at face value, Marry Me can be an enervating listen because Clark is playing against her strengths.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kollaps Tradixionales
    The emphasis on songcraft here puts Menuck's vocal range in the spotlight. While he has some standout moments, notably a casual lamentation within "Kollapz Tradixional (Thee Olde Dirty Flag)" and a jagged shout on "Kollaps Tradicional (Bury 3 Dynamos)," his range isn't always up to the demands of the music.
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