ActionAttackHelicopter.com: Michael A. Cavagnaro (June 2002)

Cordelia’s Dad just can’t seem to make up their mind. About half of this album is Puller-esque rock-n-emo, and the other half is folk-inflected ballads and even an a capella number. Perhaps this dichotomy is due to the fact that What It Is was recorded at two different times, partly in 1997 with Steve Albini and partly in 2001 with Dinosaur Jr. producer Mark Allan Miller. To their credit, the album’s not half bad. Ha ha, get it? Anyways, vocalist/Guitarist Tim Eriksen has that Michael Stipe/Gene Eugene vibe to his voice, which suits the sometimes gruesome, always melancholy tales just fine. The addition of female harmony vocals, horns, violin, and either a didgeridoo or throat-singing -- it’s hard to tell -- add a haunting edge to many of the more Americana-sounding songs. I like what Cordelia’s Dad is trying to do, but I think that the album suffers from its multiple personality disorder. Personally, my tastes lie more towards the haunting, macabre Sixteen Horsepower/Slim Cessna’s Auto Club scene, so I wanted to hear more of the "traditional" side of the band. Maybe next time around, they’ll focus on that aspect more.