Rating:  -
Can it really be a decade since Brimful Of Asha put Cornershop on Top Of The Pops? And it is a full six years since this, still their most recent album, appeared, though reports would suggest they still possess the people power in the disco hour. Certainly, this album is a bubbling bangle of beats from a band that clearly knows what it's about, and follows a consistent spindly-thread from the opener Heavy Soup, with a guest vocal from funky soul singer Otis Clay, to the bonus track, called Bonus Track.
The full versions of the singles Staging and Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III are here, and possibly the best track is the extended workout Spectral Mornings, which has extra colouration from Noel Gallagher's guitar and sitar from Sheema Mukherjee (from The Imagined Village). This has elements of raga, but elsewhere they touch down on almost every genre making this quite a global excursion, though their punk origins are never far from the surface. The Oasis connection continues with Guigsy's bass on Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III , which also features strings, a kids' chorus and Doreen Edwards from Distant Cousins.
File under: eclectic.
Rating: -
(3 and a half stars) This album has a little bit of everything, from R&B/Soul to Techno/Dance, with some good rock interspersed liberally throughout. It matches my criteria for a good album, in that it has a decent flow/groove throughout. Though not as good as their last album, this is still a superior effort. Taken individually the songs are well written, with some excellent efforts, Heavy Soup is a great opening track, Motion the 11 is a fun reggae/dance track, and Spectral Mornings is a 14 minute raga that never seems to end (this is a good thing, I didn't want it to). This is a band with a tremendous amount of talent, that is definately worth seriously listening to. That being said, I think sometimes they get a little too caught up in their own brilliance and overstate their point. While I was happy with the length of Spectral Mornings, some of the songs seemed to be quite too long, and little too repetitive.
Overall a very ambitous effort, and well executed, but with some flaws that can get slightly annoying. The quality makes up for any shortcomings, and the album holds up after repeated listening.
Maybe 3 and three quarters stars
Rating: -
When I Was Born For the Seventh Time changed the way I thought about music. It opened new worlds to me, changing my musical taste from bubble-gum Oasis style pop to a lover of William Parker, Tortoise, King Tubby, Madlib, Phillip Glass, old funk records and everything else under the sun. It did this by being an easy to understand and at the same time brilliantly innovative and experimental.
This album continues Cornershop's fun-loving exploration of musical styles easily, if not as convincingly and movingly as When I Was Born... Surprisingly, since Disco and the Halfway to Discontent, Cornershop have moved from albums whose strengths were the traditiongal songs and whose interesting parts were the instrumental bits to a band whose weak point is song writing. Not that the songs on this are bad by any means. Staging the Plaguing... and Wogs Will Walk are two of the best tradtional songs Cornershop have ever written. However, the purely instrumental parts, such as Slip The Drummer One, Bonus Track, and Heavy Soup manage to outshine the traditional songs in terms of funk, soul, and ingenuity. The last three tracks on this album alone might be the most beautiful musical statement Cornershop has ever made.
So, with that in mind, buy this.
Rating: -
This album probably deserves 5 stars, but I've got to leave room for Cornershop's previous album "When I was Born for the Seventh Time," which was even better. Cornershop is just one of those bands that makes music that sounds like it's in technicolor while everyone else is in monochrome. Their music simply fulfills so many of the functions that music is supposed to fulfill: rhythm, melody, heavyosity, fun, dancing, social criticism etc. This album is a grab bag of danceable R&B, Reggae, Rock, Funk and Disco styles. They succeed brilliantly at each of them. My 15-month-old daughter loves to jump around to it, and I do too. I also love the lyrics, which manage to be silly and moving, sincere and sarcastic all at the same time. Tjinder Singh's voice is a unique carefully annunciated drone. My wife thinks it's sexy, and I can't help but agree. Since I'm a rocker, my favorite songs are "Staging the Plaguing of the Raised Platform," which has an unforgettable guitar hook and a bunch of kids singing the chorus to great effect, and "Spectral Mornings," which is a 15 minute opus of guitars, sitars, drums and tablas. If you read the reviews of this album, nearly everyone has different favorite songs. This is because Cornershop play so many different kinds of music well. By the way the drumming on this album is absolutely phenominal.
Rating:  -
1. What is the text about? A sort-of, kind-of tribute to African-American musical tradition
2. What is good about it? The lyrics are kind of cool; the melodies are catchy.
3. What is not so good about it? It seems to me that the album is a retread of other albums that have shown their connection to African-American music. And I can't tell if it's using it as a crutch or a tribute. Whatever it is, it's pretty annoying at times.
4. Who might like it? It's in some ways a little more listener-friendly than When I Was Born for the 7th Time, and usually that's a good thing. It isn't for me this time, but it probably will be for others. Those wou like Midnite Vultures might like this.
5. Personal bias: I really like Cornershop's last album and wanted to like this one more than I do. I don't believe in the concept of selling out.
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