Product Description

WHEN I WAS BORN FOR THE 7TH TIME, the third album by Cornershop, is like a smiling, sun-lit reprieve amidst the pre-millennium tensions of most cutting-edge, Western pop of the end of the century. While their post-modern bricolage mirrors Beck's appropriation skills, Tjinder Singh and his mates craft an album of multi-cultural rhythms, textures and lyrical references. The one-world/one-groove outlook anticipates the21st century with a glee born of spiritual and physical contentment, rather than Beck's new-pollution dourness.
To drive home the point of the importance of rhythm for the soul, playful beat-driven tracks are strewn throughout the album. The groovy instrumental "Butter The Soul" pits slacker record-scratching against a sitar to the shouted delight of onlookers. A sampled voice on "What Is Happening" asks the titular question of the situation in the world's capitals while the beat set up by tablas and handclaps suggests a midnight bonfire rally. Singh and the band focus on memories and emotions any listener could identify with, and then personalise and globalise them in one fell swoop.

Track Listing

1. Sleep On The Left Side
2. Brimful Of Asha
3. Butter The Soul
4. Chocolat
5. We're In Yr Corner
6. Funky Days Are Back Again
7. What Is Happening
8. When The Light Appears Boy
9. Coming Up
10. Good Shit
11. Good To Be On The Road Back Home
12. It's Indian Tabacco My Friend
13. Candyman
14. State Troopers
15. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34600 in Music
• Released on: 1997-09-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Tjinder Singh's jewel-box armoury of mellow grooves, left-field samples, harmonium melodies and flute riffs swept all before it in 1997: the sweet, dizzy "Sleep On The Left Side" was the automatic soundtrack for TV features on New Asian Cool; and you couldn't go anywhere without hearing Fatboy Slim's Number One, knees-up remix of "Brimful of Asha". Thankfully, due to its old-school hip-hop sensibilities, When I Was Born doesn't sound tied and dated to its big year; the album oscillates between mantra and funk ("We're In Yr Corner", "Good Shit") and small, penny-chew songs played on dodgy, cheap keyboards ("Funky Days Are Back Again", "It's Good To Be On The Road Back Home Again".) Alas, Singh loathed his brief time in the spotlight, and retreated to his low-profile side-project Clinton--an eighth rebirth that never quite worked. --Caitlan Moran

Customer Reviews

Amazing
This album proves that Cornershop have the rare ability lacking in most bands, to vary their sound and style successfully. From the well known "Brimfull of Asha", brilliantly mellow "Sleep on the left side" to a stunning cover of "Norwegian Wood", this album will leave you feeling relaxed and chilled. "Good to be on the road back home" sticks in the brain and will loop through your head when walking down the street. If you liked this alum, get their next one, "Handcream for a generation".

smoker's delight
Like The Beta Band's 3 EP's, early Floyd, or Sgt Pepper, this album creates its own laid back, stoned world of wonder that makes use of a variety of musical styles, but always feels like a coherent whole. Skewed, relaxed takes on hip-hop and country mix with the easy rock bounce of Sleep on the Left Side and Brimful Of Asha. Easy to play straight through, this is ambitious music with a freindly, positive outlook. Blissful.

It should be pointed out that FatBoy Slim's remix of Brimful of Asha isn't here, and shouldn't be, as it is the exact opposite of Cornershop's desired relaxed mood. In fact, with its speeded up helium vocals, and clunkingly obvious snare rolls, the remix was the equivalent of The Wrong Trousers: a mad, stomping robotic pair of legs, forcing the human inside to march around to it's bidding.

Just as fresh as the day it was released...
Time really does nothing for this album except convince me even more that it is one the best albums of the last few years.

For a start it's a wonderfully bizarre mix of styles, with a real "bung in the kitchen sink 'n all" kind of approach. In many cases this kind of approach doesn't really work, but on this record it most certainly does - incredibly well! I'd also describe it as refreshingly electic, incredibly mellow, funky as hell and often very, very funny. It's worth buying just for the superb bass line that runs through "Candyman" (complete with those excellent handclaps!) and the wonderful cover of "Norwegian Wood" alone.

Whilst I'm sure the lads still consider Norman Cook's remix of "Brimful of Asha" to be a curse (let's face it, the original here is far superior) it did have the advantage of bringing Tjinder and Ben to a wider audience, and frankly the more people that fall in love with this album the better!

So, I'm going to pop it on the stereo again now and keep my fingers crossed for "Handcream For A Generation" (what a great title!).