Cornershop Albums (5)
'Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast'
Release Date 1/1/2009
Tracks 12
Label Ample Play
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What The Critics Say
Given Cornershop's extended seven-year layoff, it's not unreasonable to expect Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast -- the group's first album since 2002's Handcream for a Generation -- to be somewhat of a reinvention for a group that specialized in ever-shifting change in the '90s. As it turns out, Judy finds Cornershop riding a very, very comfortable groove, replicating the sound of feel of the bright, boogying Handcream while stripping away any of its intensity. That means that this is the friendliest batch of neo-glam to come down the pike in quite some time, never catching fire but never really striking a match, either, and it's the least adventurous dose of eclecticism, too, with nary a sitar, Mellotron, or sample out of place. Familiarity may often breed contempt, but not here, because there's a palpable sense of happiness running through the music -- not something that's exuberant, but rather mellow and colorful. By now, Cornershop's blend of '60s pop, '70s rock, and '90s multi-culturism feels as retro as their inspirations, but that's only because the world has moved on to other fashions while the band has not. Instead of redefining their world, they're happy to cultivate their own little garden, and when the fruit is as pleasing at this, it makes sense. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'Handcream for a Generation'
Release Date 4/1/2002
Tracks 13
Label Wiiija
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What The Critics Say
First things first -- this is hardly the song-intensive, globe-tripping platter When I Was Born for the 7th Time was. Handcream for a Generation is a record that finds its tone and grooves, even as it segues from post-Beck sonic collages to boogie rock to endless jams. No matter how they dabble in different styles, it never affects the foundation, it's just highlights. Strangely enough, for all the dance, techno, and hip-hop here -- all the club-culture clashes careening off the tracks (they obviously learned from their 2000 detour side project, Clinton) -- Handcream's predominant spirit is that of post-Brit-pop, hard-boogieing trad rock. Tjinder Singh publicly derided this sound in 1997, but his subsequent friendship with Noel Gallagher must have affected him on a deep level, since Noel not only lays down guitar on the 14-minute psych epic "Spectral Mornings," he hauls out former Oasis bassist Paul McGuigan for "Lessons Learned From Rocky I to Rocky III"; adopts Gallagher's guitar sound throughout the record; and winds up with a record that is hipper, looser, and funkier than Be Here Now, but weirdly reminiscent of it all the same. Perhaps this is what happens when British bands stretch into contemporary psychedelia, mixing all the past into the present -- they wind up with a record that is pretty entertaining in how it flits from sound to style, all with a sly wink and loving, exacting replication of production techniques, all married to beats that are surely contemporary, but contemporary club beats are often built on the past anyway, giving the whole thing a weird but appealing out-of-phase feel. This all flows well and is quite a good piece of mood music, yet there's no hiding that for all their political stances and past reputation, Cornershop doesn't really have all that much to say this time around, nor have they delivered more than a handful of songs to have all this stick. Sure, moments bubble up from the sleek, stylized surface, such as "Lessons," but for as infectious as that song is, it's really about nothing, as evidenced by its chorus of "the overgrown super-sh*t," which means jack-sh*t. Since 7th Time not only had consistency of sound, it reached further and delivered fully formed songs, it's hard not to be disappointed by the linear, surface-slick nature of Handcream, but, hey -- it sounds good, it boogies, it's good for a night on the town -- and sometimes, that's enough. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'When I Was Born for the 7th Time'
Release Date 9/1/1997
Tracks 15
Label Wiiija
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What The Critics Say
When I Was Born for the 7th Time is a remarkable leap forward for Cornershop, the place where the group blends all of their diverse influences into a seamless whole. Cornershop uses Indian music as a foundation, finding its droning repetition similar to the trancier elements of electronica, the cut-and-paste collages of hip-hop, and the skeletal melodicism of indie pop. Tying all of these strands together, the band creates a multicultural music that is utterly modern; it is conscious of its heritage, but instead of being enslaved to tradition, it pushes into the future and finds a common ground between different cultures and musics. Like Woman's Gotta Have It, large portions of When I Was Born for the 7th Time are devoted to hypnotic instrumentals, but the music here is funkier and fully realized. Cornershop hits an appealing compromise between detailed arrangements and lo-fi technology. There may be cheap keyboards and drum machines scattered throughout the album, but they are used as sonic texturing, similar to the turntables, synthesizers, samplers, sitars, and guitars that drive the instrumentals punctuating the full-fledged songs. When it chooses, Cornershop can write hooky, immediate pop songs -- "Sleep on the Left Side" and "Brimful of Asha" are wonderful pop singles, and "Good to Be on the Road Back Home" is an impressive, country-tinged tale -- but what makes When I Was Born for the 7th Time such a rich, intoxicating listen is that it balances these melodic tendencies with deceptively complex arrangements, chants, drones, electronic instrumentals, and funky rhythms, resulting in an album that becomes better with each listen. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Although Cornershop's first album rings with some of the fevered scrappiness prominent in U.S. indie bands of the early '90s (like Unrest), it's also a throwback to leftist post-punk groups of the late '70s (Gang of Four, Au Pairs). Spiking their songs with social commentary and balancing it out with an infectious sense of playfulness, the spirit and passion overrides the obvious amateurism that the band makes no attempt to hide. They're having fun, they have something to say, they love disco beats just as much as they love atonal shards of guitar and traditional Indian instrumentation. It all makes for a bold, exciting mix, even if it's sloppy and lacking direction every now and then. It also sounded little like anything else released at the time. The American version of the album, released in 1995 on Merge, adds the band's Lock, Stock and Double Barrel EP from 1993. "England's Dreaming," taking its name from Jon Savage's book on punk rock, is one of their strongest songs overall. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Tjinder Singh's Cornershop has created the perfect hybrid of Western indie rock and swirling Eastern traditional music: Hindi-pop. It's not like what the Beatles did with sitars nor is it classifiable as worldbeat: Cornershop is unique. "Jullandar Shere" opens and closes the album on an Eastern note but with a hip-hop twist. It's an adventure in lo-fi noise pop with the drone of tamboura, native percussion, and processed vocal sung in Punjabi providing the rhythm. "Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu" conveys indignation through its angry guitar and spit-sung lyrics. "Call All Destroyer" has Singh leading on funky bass like old-school political rockers Gang of Four. The anti-melodies are similar to stock indie rock, but the sonic dissonance created on dholki, harmonium, and flute separates Cornershop from the pack as they reclaim a racial stereotype (that every Asian in Great Britain tends a corner shop) while creating their very own roots music with a message. ~ Denise Sullivan, All Music Guide
