The Cornered Knees – “Like a Neutered Dog” Review

People love the good ol’ times no matter how crummy they actually, really, were. People love to reminisce, make it seem like everything in the past happened for some great, important reasons. And, more than anything, most people just like to feel like they used to be part of something really important, newsworthy, and grandiose. Most of them, however, show no interest in the events as they’re happening. 

Konner Moray is moving on. His belongings are already folded up, sitting on the sidewalk, waiting to be moved by a truck capable of carrying this kind of weight. But before that can happen, Moray has one last mission for The Cornered Knees, a revamped version of familiar tragedies, to look back at all the things that could’ve gone wrong and did. 

It’s all so sweet and beautiful that it’s enough to make you weep, make you want to brag that you were there when it all happened. You might be inclined to say that you were the first to shed a tear when “Nagata Kabi/Two Drunkards,” a Smiths-like ode to bad decisions and oversized livers, originally went out. 

Sure, you miss that familiar kind of sadness. You missed the chance to embrace it, and now it’s gone. Or, it might make you hear the 80s pop-inspired “I Walk Alone,” and make you ache for that feeling of having your heart broken and knowing that somehow, it’ll all be alright. 

The Cornered Knees has created something special with this album. It’s fresh nostalgia. It’s myth-making. And it’s showing the world something special and giving it a warning: This may never happen again!

On “The History of Asian Mutilation,” Moray delivers a poem about pain-inducing patterns that cannot be changed or broken. On the ambitious, lengthy “Salad Day Aviators,” The Cornered Knees assure us that in the best of times, some disaster is lurking. And on “To Be Pathetic,” the songwriter hides in dreams where nothing is frightening enough to actually matter. 

Where does it leave us? Wanting to buy a ticket for the past, or ready to embrace the beauty of what was? The Cornered Knees may be taking one last bow with a brighter sound. The aches are still there. And as we’re reminded, one last time, in the song “Nudes,” the good and bad times never end; they just move with you for as long as you’ll allow them to.