Review

Indie rock's famous recluse returns with another collection of rickety pop songs loaded with coy literary references and ramshackle melodies. More outwardly focused that previous releases — sole Pipe-r FM Cornog is not as concerned with exorcising his own demons as he is examining others' — What Are You On? catalogs misanthropes and miscreants with rapier wit. Based mostly around bubbling synths and clunky rhythms, East River Pipe is kind of a derelict Magnetic Fields, trading Stephin Merritt's baroque tendencies for junk shop charm. "I'll Walk My Robot Home" thumps and twinkles like a lo-fi Grandaddy, and the hazy "Druglife" has the kind of jokey desperation that powers Jason Pierce's slower numbers.