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From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Cor-Crane Secret

Polvo

1992

Cor-Crane Secret
Album Summary

This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.

Cor-Crane Secret is the debut studio album by North Carolina indie rock band Polvo. It was recorded at Duck Kee Studios in Raleigh, North Carolina, and released on Merge Records in 1992. According to Jason Anderson of AllMusic, the "critically embraced" debut of the band "deserves notice for its scope and imaginative guitars. However, Cor-Crane Secret sounds brittle when compared to the work of more accomplished '90s guitar bands like Built to Spill, Pavement, and Sonic Youth." He notes the "band's tendency to meander through long patches of dissonant but artful guitar structures [that] vigorously challenges the average rock attention span" and that they "dare themselves into overpowering their own rich songwriting" on the album. According to David Sprague of Trouser Press, the band's "lengthy, enigmatic songs have far more in common with Gentle Giant and ELP (on a budget, of course) than anything contemporary, and its disavowal of hooks is all but complete" on their debut album which "quickly laid down the clinical gauntlet", criticizing Bowie's "unsteady" vocals. UK magazine Select gave the album a similarly mixed review, with critic Anrew Perry writing that it was "[s]tructurally one of the weirdest, most contorted rock LPs of the year" and a "unique aural experience" despite the lack of "singalong choruses".

Wikipedia

Rating

2.9

Votes

49

Genres

  • Rock
  • Indie

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Reviews

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Mar 21 2025
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4

I've always enjoyed Polvo's skittering, angular guitar work so I was well-primed for this one. This LP definitely feels a bit short and sweet without too much of a strong thesis statement, but the instrumentals more than make up for that – the band's musical style is wholly unique and recognizable from a mile away, and the inventive rhythms/guitar work make each track feel somewhat unpredictable but fully underscored by some twisted internal logic. Great add and a fun listen!

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Mar 21 2025
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4

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Can I ride

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Mar 21 2025
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4

Unknown to me, but it was allright

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Mar 28 2025
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4

This one had to grow on me a little bit. Even though this style is right up my alley, I thought it was pretty boring at first. I actually started liking the last two songs, which interestingly have less plays. I went back and listened to a couple previous songs. However, there's a lot of other bands from this time period. Not sure this one is really that essential.

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Mar 21 2025
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3

This is a nice noisy indie rock album. It hovers somewhere between contemporaries like Fugazi, Therapy! and Pavements. The vocals are a bit weak, but great guitar sound.

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Mar 21 2025
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3

Very much in the Pavement/GBV type indie line. I liked it well enough but the muddy mix and (what's becoming a repetitive complaint with these lesser known alternative acts) hard to understand vocals didn't do it any favors.

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Mar 21 2025
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3

Oh, I really liked this. For a mere 38 minutes of music, this album has a lot of depth. Noisy in all the right ways with surprise moments that are genuinely pretty. The vocals don't always land, but there is still much to enjoy here. Thanks for sharing it. Fave Songs: Sense of It, Vibracobra, Kalgon, Can I Ride, Channel Changer, Well Is Deep

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Mar 21 2025
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3

There is the whole period of early 90s alt music trying to climb out of grunge sludge and into something poppier and the user submitted list is building the largest collection known to man

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Mar 21 2025
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3

I dunno what this is. Looks like it could be industrial just based on other industrial album covers I've seen from the early 90s? Or will it just be 90s alt rock? LET'S FIND OUT. Ok yeah it's alt-rock. Mildly interesting musically, vocals are absolutely nothing. Update: I forgot it was even on. That's not a *great* sign. But 3/5 for not pissing me off.

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Mar 22 2025
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3

Thought this was a decent alternative album. The noisy screechy guitar was definitely a choice. It was pretty much the whole album. At first it was pretty cool but after a while I thought if they were just going for loud and irritating over anything melodic. I enjoyed parts of it but I’d be hard pressed to revisit it. There’s just better 90s alternative. 5.9/10

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Mar 22 2025
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3

I listened to this about 24 hours before writing this and I honestly can’t recall anything about this album anymore. I think it was good idk.

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Mar 29 2025
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3

Messy but fun. I feel like if I listened to it in the right mood I might fall for it, but I wasn't on that mood yesterday. Take these three stars as a potential future four.

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Mar 21 2025
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2

Indie rock, noise rock, math rock. Música distorsionada. No me ha gustado. Un 2.

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Mar 21 2025
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2

Never heard of this before, and while they seemed ok nothing jumped out and made me want to revisit it. A little on the noisy side for me.

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