England Is a Gardenrelease date: Mar. 6, 2020
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,64]
producer: Tjinder Singh
label: Ample Play Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights:
1. "St Marie Under Canon" (4 / 5) -
2. "Slingshot" -
3. "No Rock Save in Roll" -
4. "Everywhere That Wog Army Roam" -
6. "Highly Amplified" -
10. "I'm a Wooden Soldier" -
11. "One Uncareful Lady Owner"
9th studio album by Cornershop following five years after Hold on It's Easy (2015) is the band's first album with new songs in eight years as the 2015-album presented acoustic versions of songs from the debut album Hold on It Hurts (1994) making Urban Turban - The Singhles Club (2012) their so far most recent album with new material.
The band primarily consists of the two founding members: vocalist, multi-insrumentalist, songwriter and composer Tjinder Singh and multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Ben Ayres. The two are here supported by the two guitarists Adam Blake and Pete Downing, bassist James Milne, drummer Nick Simms and percussionist Peter Bengry. Also former keyboardist of the band Anthony Saffrey, guitarist Duncan Whyte and keyboardist Alan Gregson participate on the album, and the official line-up remains a bit of an uncertain issue. When visiting the band's Facebook-account the band photo consists of only Singh and Ayres, and it seems the two represent the band and invite various stable musicians to assist when recording new songs and also to make up the band while touring.
England Is a Garden has been released to mostly positive reviews, and it appears to be a collection of songs that more or less sum up most of their career. It's a nice return to the more simple fusion of indie pop, rock & roll with bits of traditional Indian folklore world-music that you also find on the band's 1997 breakthrough album, and it's basically a nice coherent release with good vibes and some fine lyrics.
Recommended.
