The Avenue Jubilee

Cornershop “St. Marie Under Canon”

I’ve always quite liked Cornershop but have the feeling I’m always missing about 25% of their songs in the sense that Tjinder Singh’s music is so heavily coded with shibboleths hyper-specific to Indian culture, British culture, and his own personal canon of music history. Singh’s songs benefit from annotation but succeed just as well on pure sensation, as the best of them are rich with groove and melody, and radiate a warmth somewhat at odds with his often cynical and sarcastic lyrics. “St. Marie Under Canon,” the lead-off song from the band’s first proper album in over a decade, leans hard on the group’s long-established fascination with ’60s psychedelia and early ’70s glam. It feels instantly familiar, but the contrast of the ambling Dylan-esque organ riff and the crashing Iggy-ish urgency of the beat suggests a tension beneath the nostalgic vibes. Singh’s words play off that, juxtaposing prosaic but highly specific imagery with a constant threat of institutionalized violence.

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