Cornershop

Among the many, many disks I picked up at Ed Ward's estate sale a few weeks ago were two by Cornershop: Woman's Gotta Have It and When I Was Born For the 7th Time. I've been curious about this band for decades, but have never gone to the trouble of checking them out. Now I have, and I'm having one of those "where has this band been all my life" moments.

I don't know how large their catalog has gotten, since thus far the only research I've done is the TP entry. Where do I go from here? Sounds like Hold On It Hurts is essential and Handcream For a Generation is...not, but what about the rest of the catalog?

Honestly, I'd skip everything else for now and go straight for their most recent album, England is a Garden. A very surprising return to form, and possibly my favorite from them. It's too bad it went largely unnoticed.

I think their earlier work is A+ stuff and When I Was Born still gets periodic plays. I have heard singles and various downloads of their more recent work but haven't listened to the records in toto, which they probably deserve. “No Rock, Save in Roll” is a good track.

I have kind of a funny relationship with Cornershop. I always equate them to that awkward time in the mid 90s when I was really insecure musically…

…the music I’d loved and that had made me feel special was gone, gone, gone. But I wanted to feel ‘hip’ still. So I’d often try to latch on what seemed to be the hipster music of the period, like Cornershop’s ‘when I was born…’, Tricky’s ‘maxinquayue’, Porishead ‘dummy’ etc etc….

…so while I always like hearing ‘Brimful of Asha’, I can’t help remembering that period of trying to force myself in to what I thought was ‘cool’.

(I’ve decided that’s the best thing about growing older… you just don’t give a f&@k about stuff like that anymore!)

Regardless, sounds like the latest Cornershop might be worthy of investigation….

The record that their side project Clinton put out, "Disco & the Halfway to Discontent" has some really nice lo-fi grooves. I'd kinda forgotten about it and might give it a spin. Thanks for the reminder.