Cornershop - 'Handcream For A Generation' (Wiiija)
4/5
By: Toby L
If you've got any preconceptions about Cornershop and their past, please remove them - certainly if you're going to give this, their first album since '97, a listen. 'Handcream For A Generation' could successfully be renamed 'Dance Anthems For A Generation' and still be ace, where 'dance' doesn't represent mind-numbing trance or house, and instead reflects intelligent, well-written and instantly-appealing pop-rock workings - with a dosage of disco, funk and soul thrown in for good measure. There really is not point denying it, Tjinder Singh has created one of the potential finest albums of 2002.
Where he's gone right is from the implementing of the best bits from his past endeavours and fusing these with the arse-wiggling groove of his former side-project Clinton; indeed, from this other act comes a song on this LP - a reworked version of his former-single, 'People Power', complete with a toned down and more subtle arrangement. Elsewhere, the thrilling rhythm, repetitious organ-loops, and international name-checks on 'Wogs Will Walk', stunning female backing-vocals on recent top-40 single, 'Lessons Learnt From Rocky I To Rocky III' and heart-warmingly relaxed 'Staging The Plaguing Of the Raised Platform' are vital additions to a record with such a pulse, energy and texture that you'll be unable to keep away from it.
Less accessible are the sampled voices, which pop up everywhere, and it almost becomes a relief by the LP's end each time you hear Tjinder's utterly distinctive drone mouthing over the top of a given track. However, on 'Spectral Mornings', instead of the straight delivery you come to expect from Singh every time he grants one of his compositions a vocal-addition, you get a meaty distortion, backed up with heavy percussion, extremely prominent bass and one Noel Gallagher of Oasis-fame appearing on guitar. It is an awesome song - seemingly, the group must see this as the case too, because it's beyond 14 minutes in its duration (admittedly, nothing compared to the mammoth length of their 24-hour version of the track, currently streamed on their website).
The best moments to listen to this record are probably before going out in the evenings, or when returning home with a few friends; in many ways, it portrays the essence of being a very social record. That in itself is probably a fair old thing - as it'll get more people to hear it: definitely the way this LP deserves to be treated.
Artists in this article: Cornershop
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