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Handcream For A Generation
by Cornershop
This long-awaited fourth album from the London-based outfit headed by Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres is an even more eclectic mix of styles than previous efforts. The 13 new tracks include the excellent (and excellently titled) lead single "Lessons Learned From Rocky I to Rocky III," and a reworking of "People Power (In The Disco Hour)" from Singh and Ayres' Clinton side project.
| LABEL: |
V2 / Wiiija |
| RELEASE DATE: |
23 April 2002 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Alternative, Rock |
NOTES: UK release 1 April 2002. Also available on vinyl.
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
Mood music, maybe. How to be conscious and happy at the same time.
100
CultureDose.net
Having covered so much territory, the album leaves you completely fulfilled--like any nightclub act--but ready to do it all over again the next night.
91
Entertainment Weekly
Sounds even more like Quentin Tarantino directing a Bollywood Superfly starring Beck. [3 May 2002, p.88]
90
Resonance
Handcream is so fresh, so unexpected and so buoyant in its delivery of peaceful revolutionary politics that it should be the party album of the summer. [#34, p.59]
80
Dot Music
While there's no doubting Tjinder's undeniably good taste, the sheer profusion of ideas on offer is probably Cornershop's biggest shortcoming.
80
Alternative Press
A foot-stomping, bum-shaking good time from beginning to end. [May 2002, p.80]
80
New Musical Express
This is happy music for hard times, a ray of warm and righteous sunshine just when it was needed most.
80
Q Magazine
Cornershop have clearly been biding their time, not squandering it, returning with the kind of meaty, substantial, truly multi-dimensional project they've long been working towards.
80
PopMatters
Difficult and easy, dance-y and indie, this is a transitional album that works on just about every level I can think of.
80
CDNow
This is blender pop of the finest order, held together by some of the most high-minded funk in this galaxy.
80
The Onion (A.V. Club)
It's party music with an edge, and celebratory songs for underdogs.... A spirited, unpredictable good time.
80
Uncut
As with Daft Punk's Discovery and Playgrou's eponymous 2001 debut LP, Handcream For A Generation puts fun back on the agenda, offering a blurry picture of marathon socialising and the frazzled warmth of the morning after the night before. [Album of the Month, May 2002, p.88]
80
Mojo
Manages to provide a more coherent and enjoyable listening experience than mainstream dance bods like Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx have delivered of late. [Album of the Month, April 2002, p.94]
80
All Music Guide
This all flows well and is quite a good piece of mood music, yet there's no hiding that for all their political stances and past reputation, Cornershop doesn't really have all that much to say this time around, nor have they delivered more than a handful of songs to have all this stick.
76
Pitchfork
An exhilarating but disorienting ride.
70
Rolling Stone
Handcream for a Generation is a festive crash of cultures, a Babel of loops and ethnic body language. Dixie R&B, Bollywood kitsch, Crooklyn hip-hop, Eurotrash electronics -- singer-songwriter and producer Tjinder Singh shakes 'em up like rats in a box, finding kicks and connections in aggressive pastiche.
70
Launch.com
The band's strong suit--which, when it gets down to business, has gotten noticeably stronger (and tighter and more focused) over the course of four releases--are earthy dance tracks like "Music Plus 1" and "Wog.com" which take hypnotic bass and drum tracks and embellish them with a variety of samples, noises, etc., and Tjinder Singh's simple, effective vocals.
70
Village Voice
Handcream is leaner and less exuberant than When I Was Born, lower on warm drone and Indian elements generally and higher on Singh's sardonic mode.
60
Neumu.net
The set works like a spun-up set of carefully collated cuts, sequenced with stuck-tape-over-the-tabs-in-the-corners mix-tape affection that makes the whole seem like a sticky-sentimented sentimental love letter to the boys' record collections.
60
Spin
Unlike When I Was Born, which made similar pileups sound subversive, Handcream often feels mapless. [May 2002, p.122]
42
E! Online
It sounds like the band is trying too hard to recapture the quirk factor, and the overdose borders on annoying.
40
Blender
Weakened by a slew of club-oriented pieces that drown its personality in repetitive grooves. [Apr/May 2002, p.113]
30
Playlouder
What once felt like maverick defiance on the part of the 'Shop now leaves them looking directionless, with Tjinder sounding increasingly like an unattractive combination of smugness and bitterness.
The average user rating for this album is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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