Dusted Magazine's Scores

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For 3,270 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: 2,654 out of 3270
  2. Mixed: 581 out of 3270
  3. Negative: 35 out of 3270
3270 music reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Last of the Country Gentlemen
    In the format of the double album LP, with over half the songs heading into 10-minute runtimes, he's going to take you on the scenic route through all the pain he's experienced. If only Pearson was as compelling a lyricist as any of the abovementioned figures [Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, and Townes Van Zandt], Last of the Country Gentlemen might have matched the power of his earlier work.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Belong
    When it comes down to it, though, I can look at the track list and sing you back the most important lyric in any song. If pop music is meant to create a shared experience, consider this album a success on a whole bunch of levels.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cornershop & the Double-O Groove Of
    Cornershop and the Double-O Groove Of finds the band's east/west fusion developed far past the experimental stage into deft and heartfelt songcraft.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In the Cool of the Day
    Vocally, In the Cool of the Day often lacks that urgency: it's a beautifully played, highly accessible album that nevertheless leaves much less of an impact than one might expect.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    En Form For Bla
    While there are moments where En Form for Bla (named for the Oslo club where it was recorded) rolls right over you like a rogue wave, more often it sounds like the main action was situated a couple rooms away from the microphones.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tao of the Dead
    Tao of the Dead makes me, by turns, want to improve my attention span and want to listen to something else.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bible Eyes
    Egyptrixx avoids the brittle tastelessness of modern electro and Fool's Gold party-starting by allowing a touch of that cold, spacious futurism to creep in.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Big Roar
    Say this for The Joy Formidable's debut effort, The Big Roar: It tells no lies and seeks no modest ambitions.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tirtha
    While the album is beautifully recorded, there's a certain sterility throughout, something approaching caution.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Mind Spiders
    What you're really hearing is the sound of Mark Ryan thinking out loud, through song. And even though this can be frustrating at times, it's still plenty refreshing to get such an eclectic survey of what most reformed punks are taking for pop music nowadays.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    La Sera
    La Sera's debut is the Kate Moss of garage rock, blank-eyed, pretty and dangerously thin.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Several Shades of Why
    He drops his first studio acoustic disc, Several Shades of Why, and it's as lilting and boldly distinctive and profoundly sad as can be expected.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Land and Fixed
    Sniper is nothing if not reliable, and consistent. But what I will return to, even after the memory of this particular album becomes blurred, is "Blurred Tonight" and the other songs that have deviated, even in the slightest, from the program.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Woody Nightshade
    Nightshade's 10 songs unpack desire and affection and come up with the notion that disappointment is every bit worth savoring as joy because a romantic betrayal might acquaint you with real (not necessarily romantic) love. So while this record sounds pensive and lingers on experiences of loss, it's not depressing.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Boys and Diamonds
    Like a lot of music benefiting from the blogosphere's voracious appetite for the new, Boys and Diamonds is a bricoleur's hodge-podge of style.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Content
    This is not a bad album, and if it weren't carrying the Gang of Four name, you might find it casually enjoyable.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    12 Desperate Straight Lines
    The charm of these songs won't last forever. They'll have their season in your heart or car stereo, their refrains will seep gently into your vocabulary, and at some point you'll stop needing them, but it's welcome company while it lasts.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Smoke Ring for My Halo
    I'm more than happy to take this album as it is, blemishes and all.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Heart Ache/Dethroned
    This collection stands as an odd object--somewhere between a historical document and a fresh statement. Of its two components, Dethroned makes for the stronger half, and that's reassuring in its own way: in a work that weds older material with newer contributions, it's encouraging to find that the high points come from the latter.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Peer Amid
    The sound is physically propulsive, enveloping and mildly psychoactive. The beat pounds hard on the most lizardly parts of the brain, bringing a catharsis, a sheer rush of physicality.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Back to Reality
    Back to Reality's themes are pretty simple: having fun, getting laid and falling in love, all on the dance floor. It has just the right mix of crassness and manners, in a proportion that seems more than a bit quaint by today's standards.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Civilian
    On Civilian, the band shows that it can be serious without being overbearing, evocative without being histrionic, and accessible without being derivative.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Constant Future
    Sure, you can hear that they're awed and distressed about the state of things, but the emotion in Friel and Warshaw's singing seems undercut by the lyrics.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fading Parade
    Fading Parade brings back the guitars, but continues the slide toward formlessness, with songs that are always pleasant but no longer very compelling.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Living with Yourself
    It's bold without making a big stink about it. It's personal without being solipsistic. It's a musical proof of Umberto Eco's thesis.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pyramid of the Sun
    As a statement of intent from that band, Pyramid is promising in a shaky kind of way: it's clear that there's still creative magic to go around, but also that the old chemistry is going to be a tough one to reorient.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    II
    The Psychic Paramount's music lacks words, but not a voice. These songs have a lot to say, and I'll be surprised if I hear a rock album this year that packs as strong a punch as II.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Something Dirty
    Echoes of Faust's enduring impact leap to the forefront constantly, but by the end of Something Dirty, it is clear that the anxiety of influence remains on the present generation, not vice versa.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We're New Here
    The result is deep, it's broadly imaginative, it's tightly focused, and it's utterly essential.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nothing Fits
    The nuanced defeatism on Nothing Fits separates these brash, loud punk anti-anthems from the standard hardcore fare. The most ephemeral evidence of this is also the most effective: instead of battering you into submission with unadulterated force, songs are separated with just enough silence to make you uncomfortable, impatient. The subtle natures of hell are often the worst.
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