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Handcream for a Generation | 
| Artist: Cornershop
Label: Wiiija
Category: Music
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £6.78
You Save: £2.21 (25%)
New (31) Used (19) Collectible (2) from £1.38
Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 88293
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 614027111528
EAN: 0614027111528
ASIN: B00005UNIG
Release Date: April 1, 2002
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Heavy Soup | | • | Staging The Plaguing Of The Raised Platform | | • | Music Plus 1 | | • | Lessons Learned From Rocky I to Rocky III | | • | Wogs Will Walk | | • | Motion The 11 | | • | People Power | | • | Sounds Super Recordings | | • | The London Radar | | • | Spectral Mornings | | • | Slip The Drummer One | | • | Heavy Soup (Outro) | | • | Bonus Track |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
For the pessimists who thought 1998's "Brimful Of Asha" might have made Cornershop one-hit wonders, Handcream For A Generation acts as a dazzling Technicolor rejoinder. This fourth album by Tjinder Singh's group is a sure-footed survey of international party styles. Through 13 tracks, they manage to locate the secret connections between funk, hip-hop turntablism, boogie rock, roots reggae, French house, Punjabi folk, heavy psychedelia and, yes, good old-fashioned indie-pop. On paper it looks dauntingly over-ambitious, and in the hands of any other band it probably would be. But Singh has a talent for finding universal accessibility at the heart of any genre, and a pathological fear of the clichéd and portentous. So Handcream begins with deep soul singer Otis Clay making the introductions on "Heavy Soup", cranks up a hoary old Stones riff for an extended rant about the music biz on "Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III" and even finds a use for Noel Gallagher on the 15-minute soaring raga of "Spectral Mornings". Best of all, the whole album's imbued with a spirit that's both celebratory and contrary, one that challenges and stimulates even while it's making you dance on the table. --John Mulvey
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Sounds super recordings May 31, 2008
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.
 Unexpected and great July 19, 2007
I bought the cd two days ago and it's all I've listened to since! I loved when I was born... and I expected (even hoped for) more of the same but this is very different and also very, very good. I look forward to my walk to work in the mornings as I can listen to it again on my ipod, it's upbeat, funky and fun.
 Buy it for one track.. October 27, 2003
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The album is a failed experiment but buy it for "Spectral Mornings". I dreaded the idea of a Gallagher brother adding anything to a Cornershop album but this really works - as another reviewer noted, it's a song you just don't want to end.
dissapointing April 24, 2003
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
to much of this is like Prince after he lost the plot - aimless funk workouts going nowhere. "Lessons learned .." is a great Stones pastiche and "Spectral Mornings" is a very good mix of western & Asian styles though it goes on too long (is the Steve Hackett reference deliberate?) Most of the rest though is either dull or just plain irritating - People Power "in the disco hour"! being particularly bad. This feels like a b side collection and is a huge disappointment after the promise of Whe I was Born for the 7th Time.
A rare example of a UK band with some imagination. March 11, 2003
12 out of 17 found this review helpful
Cornershop, as they demonstrated on 1997's 'When I Was Born for the 7th Time' , are quite happy to experiment with their sound- taking on electic stylings uncommon to the majority of British music. I do wonder about the negative reviews given to this (which seems more to do with the way the NME have positively reviewed this LP & then the LP not coming up to the 'standards' of people who think the Strokes are cutting edge!)- Cornershop are a million times more inventive than lame vogue types like The Coral (very bad Teardrop Explodes or XTC), BRMC (very lame take on The Jesus&Mary Chain) & The Vines (extremely lame attempt at sounding like Nirvana). Cornershop have more in common with such eclectic souls as AR Kane, The Clash around 'Sandinista', The Specials 2nd album & artists like Kid Loco & Radio 4. 'The London Radar' sounds like a funked out blend of Depeche Mode's 'Breathing in Fumes' & The Specials' 'International Jet Set'... Tjinder Singh & co offer up an electic stew- a retake of some Clinton tracks (which were more suited to the EP, if such a thing really still existed)- 'People Power in the Disco Hour' a particular joy; while 'Staging the Plagueing of the Raised Platform' uses kids voices in a similarly imaginative manner to Smog's 'Knock Knock' or Talk Talk's 'The Colour of Spring'. The two takes of 'Heavy Soup' (featuring Otis Clay) gives the album a cohesive, circular whole & ties up the listening experience. The single 'Lessons Learnt From Rocky I to Rocky III' is as strong as any of the singles from the previous album- the swearing sounding as cool as that used in Pavement's songs, I feel. 'Wogs Will Walk' is a cool blend of The Meters, early Public Enemy & 96 onwards Cornershop; while 'Slip the Drummer One' floats off into Daft Punk/My House in Montmartre style material with samples that sound like Flavor Flav. The highlight remains 'Spectral Mornings', an epic track you never want to end- think of songs like 'Sister Ray', 'Mother Sky', 'The Private Psychedelic Reel' or 'TB Sheets'- an endless groove. The song's sung in Punjabi, but the feel transcends language & guest Noel Gallagher proves that the Oasis-frontmen are better off outside of their band formula (Liam's track with Death in Vegas was equally excellent)- why Noel doesn't try doing something like this on a Beatles-style studio album is beyond me. 'Handcream for a Generation' is one of the best albums released in this decade & stands next to the best of the last few years- albums such as 'Sound Dust', 'Figure 8', '69 Love Songs', 'Insignificance', 'Mass Romantic', 'Kill Your Darlings', 'Stankonia', the last Joe Strummer album, the 'Apple Venus'-XTC albums, the latest Calexico, 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' etc. It is an album that pays off with frequent listening & is more likely to reveal itself to open-minded eclectic souls than those who think bands like Coldplay & Travis are somehow challenging. Hope their next LP comes round a bit quicker...
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