Why is Cornershop’s When I Was Born For the 7th Time on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Record scratches, catchy pop hooks, and Indian influences that will butter the soul.
What does Cornershop’s When I Was Born For the 7th Time mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
The more I listen to When I Was Born For the 7th Time, the more impressed I become with it. Some albums wear out and some wear better over time, I suppose.
Cornershop uses a pleasing collection of record scratches, super amiable and catchy pop hooks, and 1960s rock and Indian music influences that gets more intriguing every time you throw it on.
“Brimful of Asha” was UK-based Cornershop’s breakout hit, at least U.S. stateside, and with good reason. It leverages all that I mention above, plus other layered in effects and even a nice string arrangement in the song’s second half. And you know what? Everybody does need a bosom for a pillow.
The music video for “Brimful of Asha” also does a great job of capturing that 1960s pop meets modernity meets Indian influences vibe.
And on my write up of Luaka Bop 10th Anniversary: Zero Accidents on the Job (#864 of best 1,000 albums ever), I noted the following about Fatboy Slim’s version of “Brimful of Asha”:
A true highlight of the album, and by far my favorite song, is a Fatboy Slim remix of Cornershop’s “Brimful of Asha.” Much as with Fatboy Slim’s remix of the Beastie Boy’s “Body Movin’,” off the Beastie’s Hello Nasty, I wound up preferring the Fatboy Slim version far more than the perfectly acceptable original.
And if you watched the “Brimful of Asha” video and started getting a Beatles-gone-to-India vibe, that’s a great segue to Cornershop’s fantastic cover of The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown),” which again falls right in the band’s wheelhouse. I appreciate that Cornershop doesn’t do a ton to the song but just enough to make it its own, including of course performing the song in the Punjabi language.
“Butter the Soul” shows off Cornershop’s facility with record scratches and hot 1960s pop-meets-lounge music, before segueing into a Indian-flavored psychedelic rock section.
Some stats & info about Cornershop – When I Was Born For the 7th Time
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Pop Music, British Bands, Indie Rock, Alternative Dance, Lo-fi Hip Hop, Alternative Pop, Lounge Music
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was When I Was Born For the 7th Time released? 1997
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #768 out of 1,000
Cornershop’s When I Was Born For the 7th Time on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.