Since 2002's Handcream For A Generation – one of the great overlooked albums of the decade – Cornershop have been silent save for the 2006 single "Wop The Groove".
Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres busied themselves in the interim by making a film about the difficulties facing the music industry, a subject which opens this new album, as they wonder "Who Fingered Rock'n'Roll". Set to a swaggering, Stones-y raunch-riff swathed in gospelly backing vocals and streaked with tamboura, it criticises major labels who have priced downloads so cheaply it's almost impossible for independent players to compete – not least Cornershop, with this self-made, self-promoted album. It would be a shame if Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast suffered the neglect of its predecessor, as it's stuffed with the life-affirming, genre-bending crossovers we expect from the band. Bass clarinet and trombone broaden further the Cornershop indie-rock, Indo-Funk fusion on "Free Love", "Chamchu" and the title track, while a cover of "The Mighty Quinn" offers country picking in the style of The Byrds' Clarence White. Only the concluding 16-minute "Turned On Truth" palls; by then, they've already secured their purchase on one's affections.
Download this: 'Who Fingered Rock'n'Roll', 'Free Love', 'The Roll-Off Characteristics', 'The Mighty Quinn", 'Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast'
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