AMPLE PLAY
Despite this being Cornershop’s first regular album for 11 years, there’s no evidence of the struggles to make fresh music the duo discuss elsewhere this issue. Instead, England Is A Garden has the same brave, go-anywhere spirit as When I Was Born For The 7th Time and Handcream For A Generation. The consistent thread is a defiance, both musically and lyrically, with a fabulously sleazy feel to I’m A Wooden Soldier and No Rock: Save In Roll made all the stronger by Tjinder Singh’s typically understated delivery. The determinedly pop spirit is also present in Everywhere That Wog Army Roam, making Singh’s cautionary tale of police harassment all the more unsettling when told over Archiesstyle cartoon pop. Ironically for a record that’s taken its time to be made, England Is A Garden works because this is pop music that sounds so effortless.