England Is a Garden

England Is a Garden
Studio album by
Cornershop
Released6 March 2020 (2020-03-06)
Length48:20
LabelAmple Play
Cornershop chronology
Hold On It's Easy
(2015)		 England Is a Garden
(2020)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.6/10
Metacritic82/100
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStarStarHalf star
And It Don't Stop(2-star Honorable Mention)(2-star Honorable Mention)
The IndependentStarStarStarStar
MusicOMHStarStarStar
NMEStarStarStar
The ObserverStarStarStarStar

England Is a Garden is a studio album by British indie rock band Cornershop. It was released on 6 March 2020 under the band's own label, Ample Play Records.

The first single from the album, "No Rock: Save in Roll" was released on 26 November 2019.

Critical reception

England Is a Garden was met with universal acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 82, based on 10 reviews.

AllMusic's Tim Sendra hailed England Is a Garden as Cornershop's "most cohesive and powerful record yet, full of songs that have a hearty punch to go along with their typically sharp hooks". Elisa Bray of The Independent found its "pan-cultural melting pot of juxtapositions" as "confrontational" and "musically ambitious" as the band's early work. Somewhat less impressed, Robert Christgau highlighted the songs "Everywhere That Wog Army Roam" and "The Cash Money" while offering as a summation that the band's singer and songwriter "Tjinder Singh fends off Brexit with his trademark hyperintelligent indirection, a tactic that doesn't work as well as it used to".

Track listing

England Is a Garden track listing
No.TitleLength
1."St Marie Under Canon"4:12
2."Slingshot"5:15
3."No Rock: Save in Roll"3:42
4."Everywhere That Wog Army Roam"5:09
5."King Kongs"0:09
6."Highly Amplified"4:49
7."England Is a Garden"1:45
8."Cash Money"5:19
9."Morning Ben"0:18
10."I’m a Wooden Soldier"5:00
11."One Uncareful Lady Owner"3:52
12."The Holy Name"8:50

Charts

Chart performance for England Is a Garden
Chart (2020) Peak
position
Scottish Albums (Official Charts)76
UK Independent Albums (Official Charts)13

References

  1. ↑ "AnyDecentMusic? Review". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  2. 1 2 "Metacritic Review". Metacritic. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  3. 1 2 Sendra, Tim. "AllMusic Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  4. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (14 October 2020). "Consumer Guide: October, 2020". And It Don't Stop. Substack. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  5. 1 2 Bray, Elisa (4 March 2020). "Cornershop review, England is a Garden: Band are no less musically ambitious nearly 30 years later". The Independent. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  6. ↑ Johnson, Steven (9 March 2020). "MusicOMH Review". MusicOMH. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  7. ↑ Beaumont, Mark (4 March 2020). "Cornershop – 'England Is A Garden' review: DIY-'til-we-die anthems for their devoted cult following". NME. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  8. ↑ Morris, Damien (8 March 2020). "Cornershop: England Is a Garden review – liberation, celebration". The Observer. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  9. ↑ Roberts, Christopher (26 November 2019). "Cornershop Announce New Album". Under the Radar. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  10. ↑ Bloom, Madison (26 November 2019). "Cornershop Announce First Album in 8 Years, Share New Song". Pitchfork. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  11. ↑ "Official Scottish Albums Chart on 13/3/2020 – Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  12. ↑ "Official Independent Albums Chart on 13/3/2020 – Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 May 2020.