April 1, 2002 by A.S. Van Dorston

Despite the praise, the hits and the awards, there have always been doubts about whether Cornershop would really endure as a truly great band. All their albums had their share of filler, and their vastly underrated 1999 electro-dance project Clinton failed to capture most Cornershop fans’ fancy. Handcream For A Generation succeeds in fulfilling Cornershop’s destiny as a party band with brains and substance. The first great good-times summer album of the year (it really clicked during an unseasonably hot early-spring day on the beach), Handcream is also Cornershop’s most consistent. Guest Otis Clay kicks off the album not with his traditionally darker-side of Al Green soul, but MC’s an exuberant introduction that echoes King Curtis’ “Memphis Soul Stew.” “Staging The Raising Of The Raised Platform” is a sunny romp with a youthful chorus. “Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III” is based on the kind of hip-thrusting rhythm guitars last used so masterfully by T. Rex, while poking fun at “the overgrown supershit” of ego-driven pomp rockers. Co-produced by turntablist guru DJ Rob Swift, “Wogs Will Walk” is James Brown-funky, easing down its provocative social message like sugary medicine. “Motion The 11” could have been just another tribute to U-Roy style 70s dancehall reggae. Yet somehow Jack Wilson and Kojak of the Nazarites manage the conjure real magic here that conveys utter joy rarely heard from anyone but Toots and the Maytals.

Multicultural dance songs with political sentiments haven’t been this fun since The Specials and half of The Clash’s Sandinista. “People Power” takes the only weak cut from Clinton’s Disco & The Halfway To Discontent and improves it. “Spectral Mornings” is a hypnotic jam that takes a very catchy riff contributed by Noel Gallagher and stretches it to nearly a quarter hour, with not a needless second. Heck, they even broadcast a 24-hour mix on the Internet. One can’t even criticize lesser dance tracks like “Music Plus 1” and “The London Radar” much, because they measure up to the best that critical favorites like Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx have to offer. Cornershop are an enigma, simultaneously cranky and celebratory, a tension they’ve developed to the best effect since perhaps Sly & the Family Stone. A song or two short of a stone cold classic, and perhaps missing singles as big as “Sleep on the Left Side,” Cornershop have certainly proven that they are as relevant and evocative as ever. And a total blast.