Have You Heard... Dust's 'Sky Is Falling?'

Album artwork by Nikola Jokanovic (@linear.wave.sampler - IG), cover reproduced not-for-profit in compliance with Aus Copyright Law

Debut LPs are, have always been, and will forever continue to be among some of the most powerful tools in an artist’s toolbox. If successfully executed, these types of releases can place certain artists on a trajectory straight to the top, and if not, they can make it ridiculously hard for an artist to permanently recover from. Nailing your first full-length record is a pretty impressive feat, and in the case of Novocastrian Post-Punk outfit, Dust, I think this rings mostly true. Released on the 10th of October, 2025, ‘Sky Is Falling,’ marks the band’s first full-length album, just a mere two years removed from their stellar debut EP, ‘et cetera, etc.’

Themes

Off the bat, when comparing ‘et cetera, etc’ to ‘Sky Is Falling,’ I felt like there was a pretty stark contrast present in terms of maturity, both thematically and musically. Over the course of the album’s duration, themes of existentialism, unease, and nostalgia played pretty heavily for me, with all three rearing their heads at different points throughout. “We lie in the grass of a light-hearted field, and want to think and tell yourself ‘what if this is all real?’” This is a line from frenetic album-opener Drawbacks, and it was here that this idea of existentialism began, trickling through tracks such as Just Like Ice (“As we fly close to the sun(and wait in liminal space)),” and Two Dogs (“Think and wonder the end, your words are treading again”).

Photo taken by Andrew Briggs (@_andrewbriggs_ - IG), photo reproduced not-for-profit and in compliance with Aus Copyright Law

Additionally, that theme of unease can be seen throughout the entire duration of Restless, with the track Fairy nailing that sense of nostalgia by feeling so much like an ode to a lost/old friend. Essentially speaking, it seemed as though lead vocalist Justin Teale was at some of his sharpest lyrically, effortlessly weaving in Australian slang (“Far out, Brussels Sprout” - Swamped) for comedic effect, as well as some call backs to the subject matter of some of Dust’s older catalogue (“I wish they had me buried (‘cause of a little infection)” - seemingly a nod to the track Ward 52 from ‘et cetera, etc.’).

Musicality

Aside from such quality lyricism, it felt like musically, Dust had so much room to explore various sounds on this album. On ‘Sky Is Falling,’ Dust went so far beyond their typical post-punk foundation to create a super sonically-diverse album. Standout track Alistair goes the route of dream-pop, led by these really gentle guitars that eventually swell into lush atmospherics filled with warmth. The track’s outro has shoegaze written all over it, and this is a genre similarly explored throughout other entries such as Fairy and Day Tight. Fairy is pretty much complete shoegaze, centred around a main guitar line super reminiscent of bands like My Bloody Valentine or Blue Smiley. Day Tight was my personal favourite on ‘Sky Is Falling,’ going from shoegaze, back to post-punk, before changing tempos and breaking down for the outro. The intensity and aggression of this break-down gave me goosebumps, audibly making me say “Holy Shit,” when I first heard it.

Flaws?

To move briefly to the flaws, this was a pretty tall task in my opinion. The only criticism I really had was the sequencing of the tracks, with some transitioning incredibly smoothly to the other, and some that didn’t. Some of the more noticeable examples for me, included the transition from Restless to Aside, Aside to Fairy and Day Tight to In Reverie. Outside of this point, however, I thought this release was pretty exceptional.

To go beyond that last point, I’d go as far to say that ‘Sky Is Falling’ was one of my favourite albums released this year. The wide range of emotionality/energy present, along with the rich diversity in sounds featured made this a super enjoyable listen from start to finish. Each individual member of Dust got their moments to shine, and boy did they take advantage of that. 

All in all, I think the music world has recently seen a surge of new post-punk acts enter the frame, and with that surge in popularity, I think it becomes really hard for those types of bands to stand-out. However, with bands like Dust manning the helm and pushing the boundaries….

I think the futures of post-punk and alternative music are in good hands.