- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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This is right up there with his best.
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Alternative PressThe words are as bleak as ever, and the songs still cut like coal-black shards of anti-pop bitterness. [Apr 2006, p.204]
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BillboardSongs of losers and loss tempered by only a taste of wry humor.
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Present are the hints of early Guided by Voices, spotty Who outtakes and country-tinged acoustics that make East River Pipe so beloved, but here these influences tread, weighted, underwater.
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A deeply satisfying work of storytelling through pop.... What Are You On? is emotionally complex in a way that few of the more prosperous songwriters of Cornog’s generation are capable of producing at this point in their careers.
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Like every East River Pipe album it’s blemished by imperfections, but Cornog’s lonely, home-recorded drabness goes beyond the "sun, sun, sun" of other retro-oriented musicians to remind us that sunlight reflecting off slabs of urban concrete remains as bleak in 2006 as it was in 1974.
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UrbLuckily he counteracts offbeat, sad sucker storytelling with endearing Casio tones and token indie rock chords. [Mar 2006, p.123]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 6 out of 6
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Mixed: 0 out of 6
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Negative: 0 out of 6
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DaveJFeb 26, 2006
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DougPFeb 19, 2006Beautiful sadness. Or sad beauty. Hits you in the bottle.
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EricRFeb 15, 2006An underrated gem. I'm new to Cornog