England Is a Garden
The ninth album, about ten years in the making, released on the band's own label.
Cornershop, 2020
- Released
- 6 March 2020
- Label
- Ample Play
England Is a Garden came out on 6 March 2020 on Ample Play Records. Its first single, No Rock: Save in Roll, appeared on 26 November 2019. The Guardian described it as ten years in the making, with some songs inspired by Singh's Black Country upbringing and others driven by his and Ayres's love of glam rock, psychedelia and Punjabi folk and pop. It opens with the single St Marie Under Canon, and the cover is a neon-coloured, androgynous crusader.
Metacritic gave it 82 from ten reviews. AllMusic's Tim Sendra called it the band's most cohesive and powerful record yet, and the Guardian's reviewer thought it never as transcendent as 1997's When I Was Born for the 7th Time but still heard liberation and celebration in St Marie Under Canon.
More from Cornershop
Hold On It Hurts (1994), Woman's Gotta Have It (1995), When I Was Born for the 7th Time (1997), Handcream for a Generation (2002)
Sources
- England Is a Garden, Wikipedia
- Cornershop's Tjinder Singh: 'My dad said, They'll not always want you here', The Guardian (2020-03-01)
- Cornershop: England Is a Garden review, The Guardian (2020-03-08)