When I Was Born For The 7th Time

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 the 21st 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.|