Consumer Guide Album

Cornershop: Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast [Ample Play, 2010]
Tjinder Singh isn't the most outgoing fellow, but I hope some investigative reporter from Upper Blogovia reveals just what he's been doing since the last time he put out an album, which was 2002. Can you really keep body and soul together hustling chess and counting the royalties from "Brimful of Asha"? Especially since the new one sounds a lot like the old one: casually pancultural, mixing "rock" and "disco" sounds, political supersmarts trailing off into apparent trivialities. R&B sitar. Manfred Mann cover masquerading as Dylan cover. Obscure '80s Brit faux-soul reference. "The Roll Off Characteristics (of History in the Making)." Looks thrown together and thrown away. Takes forever to think of, even with an IQ like Tjinder Singh's. A-