Cornershop: Who’s Gonna Lite Up

Cornershop were the band that made it clear you didn’t need to be cool in any traditional sense to make something that sounded good. British-Indian, loud, rambling, unafraid of being goofy or sentimental in the same song. They showed up in the mid-90s Leicester indie scene like they were just figuring it out as they went, which I think they were. Who’s Gonna Lite Up Your Light doesn’t try to be clever—it’s a love song that sounds like they genuinely didn’t know if anyone would care, but they were going to play it anyway. That’s the whole thing right there. They weren’t performing indie credibility; they were just making music in a room and letting whatever happened happen. That kind of carelessness is rarer than it should be.