{"id":460049,"date":"2026-02-10T11:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/460049\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T11:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:33:08","slug":"dirt-buyer-dirt-buyer-iii-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/460049\/","title":{"rendered":"Dirt Buyer: Dirt Buyer III Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting forced to play little league baseball is about as emo as youthful tribulations get. I imagine Joe Sutkowski\u2014who appears in full uniform on the cover of Dirt Buyer III, the third album from his emo recording project Dirt Buyer<\/a>\u2014as one of those kids who picked dandelions in right field and maybe attempted to swing at three pitches all season. Being coerced into recreational activities against your will suggests a unique type of loneliness\u2014for Sutkowski, one that represents emotional trials far deeper than just an unhappy season in dusty cleats. \u201cBaseball is somethin\u2019 I\u2019ll never get\/But I sleep on it\/Wake up and try again,\u201d he sings on opener \u201cBaseball,\u201d which relays the idea into an album-spanning theme about isolation and childhood angst.<\/p>\n

Originally envisioned as a fake band, Dirt Buyer have been searching for an identity to call their own since their 2019 self-titled debut. Sutkowski hasn\u2019t quite circled the bases, but he\u2019s getting closer. Emerging from a stormy period in Sutkowski\u2019s life, III\u2019s blend of emo, slowcore, and folk works great as a cathartic emotional exercise thanks to its visceral themes and weighty sound, even though the record seldom adds anything new to an ever-evolving emo canon.<\/p>\n

No score yet, be the first to add.<\/p>\n

III is best at its heaviest, when traumatic tales drowned in waves of distortion and instrumental layering are surrounded by subdued passages that bridge their corrosive cores. \u201cBullshit Fuck\u201d frontloads its grating guitars and percussion as Sutkowski delivers a wearied rant, and its second half simmers out into an introspective instrumental befitting the comedown after a venting session. \u201cMe Before You\u201d is the exact opposite: Its spacey guitar refrains underline a story of conflicted emotions (\u201cI wanna make it right\/But I don\u2019t think I can stomach it this time\u201d) that slowly builds towards an abrasive and decisive finale (\u201cI don\u2019t need you\/I don\u2019t wanna make it right\/I think I can stomach it this time\u201d).<\/p>\n

But some songs are hollow to a fault. The meandering drum machine base of \u201cOld as Sin\u201d never quite builds to anything more substantial, and it sticks out against the raw drums on the rest of the album. The naked guitars of \u201cMultizeal\u201d offer a melodic break from the pounding intensity, but the song suffers from a final build that teases a climactic finale yet peters out with nothing to show for it. More melodic variation might have elevated these more reserved passages; Sutkowski\u2019s pull-no-punches songwriting usually isn\u2019t enough to shoulder the weight on its own.<\/p>\n

As a folky slowcore album discussing childhood woes with straightforward but descriptive songwriting, III doesn\u2019t do much to break away from its obvious influences, chief among them Mark Kozelek<\/a>. Some songs build from Sutkowski\u2019s inspirations and even improve upon them, but others wear them a bit too prominently on their sleeves. The trodding pace of \u201cWait on the World\u201d is right out of the Red House Painters<\/a> playbook, and Sutkowski\u2019s great vocal performance gives it a brand new shellac, shifting from low hums to high hollers that convey a vivid sense of distress. \u201cFor Me,\u201d though, doesn\u2019t do much to sound like anything other than a heavier \u201cCarry Me Ohio<\/a>,\u201d flipping the main riff and thematic structure of Kozelek\u2019s classic into a distracting imitation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting forced to play little league baseball is about as emo as youthful tribulations get. I imagine Joe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[776,88,216,777],"class_list":{"0":"post-460049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-albums","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-web"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}