Pitchfork

"Each of us is special in our own unique way." Should've told me in '89! Sad and creepy trad-rockers have been trying to extract gravitas from platitude for ages, but they're sad and creepy trad-rockers. Then the Flaming Lips tried with "Do You Realize" and its Seussian dreamscapes, but that song was too much melancholy, and Coyne was too much creepy. Clor don't futz with emotional dynamics. "Outlines" earns its PopText, offering Charleston chewy synths, gum bubbly vox, and assorted pilferages from the five-cent jar: bells, claps, synthesized bells, synthesized claps. Therapied-out cynics will dig the subversive sex lines-- "One way or another gonna get into your outline/ Gonna get in from the outside/ You never know, it might just feel right"-- knowing your kids are learning well."