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.[9]

England Is a Garden
Studio album by
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[1]
Metacritic82/100[2]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
And It Don't Stop(2-star Honorable Mention)(2-star Honorable Mention)[4]
The Independent[5]
MusicOMH[6]
NME[7]
The Observer[8]

The first single from the album, "No Rock: Save in Roll" was released on 26 November 2019.[10]

Critical reception

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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.[2]

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".[3] Elisa Bray of The Independent found its "pan-cultural melting pot of juxtapositions" as "confrontational" and "musically ambitious" as the band's early work.[5] 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".[4]

Track listing

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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

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Chart performance for England Is a Garden
Chart (2020) Peak
position
Scottish Albums (OCC)[11] 76
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[12] 13

References

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  1. ^ "AnyDecentMusic? Review". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Metacritic Review". Metacritic. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  3. ^ a b Sendra, Tim. "AllMusic Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  4. ^ a b Christgau, Robert (14 October 2020). "Consumer Guide: October, 2020". And It Don't Stop. Substack. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  5. ^ a b 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 Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  12. ^ "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 May 2020.