Handcream for a Generation [Import]

Cornershop | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 2, 2002)
• Original Release Date: 2002
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Wiiija
• ASIN: B00005UNIG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #340,314 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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 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 as well as 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

Product Description

Import only 2002 album.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars High Quality, some flaws, November 8, 2003

By 

Paul Lawlor "bdmcgee66" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Handcream for a Generation (Audio CD)

(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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Supple Grooves, May 16, 2002

By 

WrtnWrd "Hankman" (Northridge, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Handcream for a Generation (Audio CD)

Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres deepen their supple grooves as they move closer to mainstream central on Cornershop's fourth release, Handcream for a Generation. Since When I Was Born for the 7th Time was a formal breakthrough and minor hit thanks to "Brimful of Asha", Handcream for a Generation may feel like a retread. Yet after considerations of newness and chronology are taken into account, this latest may prove to be the better collection. They've mastered a dance-collage technique that makes their peers cry (and look like dolts in the process). Their music no longer flaunts but consumes their influences - disco, Bollywood, hard rock, new wave, hip-hop - and makes a better case for a rainbow coalition than previous rhetoric. Having less to say, these 13 tracks just want to get your Paki-black-Jamaican-white [bottom] moving. Cribbed from their Clinton side-project, "people power in the disco hour" remains their statement of fact. That may sound like party-time idealism, but these hedonists know where to find true equality.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ALBUM OF THE YEAR, July 4, 2002

By 

chris jennings (Florida, the best of the u.s.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Handcream for a Generation (Audio CD)

All I can say is they nailed it this time out.I have been a slight fan of these guys for years.I saw them live in 97, and thought they were good-but too many drawn-out sitar/dobro moments.On this new album I dont hear any sitars whatsoever, and it's so refreshing that they almost completely changed their style.I thought for sure they would do the exact same thing.This album seems rooted in the 70's.The first tune seems like a Sly Stone outtake, there is a reggae tune, and a flat-out/no apologies disco song.I normally dont like disco, but it jives with the rest of the album since it's all over the map.There is even a full-fledged rock tune a la Rod Stewart/Faces_
(Lessons from Rocky 1-3)A couple techno songs keep it sounding up-to-date.If you want an album that has all kinds of music and sampling....THIS IS 4 U