Britpop
Jarvis Cocker that loveable, bespectacled beanpole has a new CD out called “Further Complications”. Some of you may, if you are as aged as moi, remember Pulp and the Britpop glory days of Blur, Suede, Elastica etc. Ah golden years of yoof…
Jarvis is a well known past master of the whimsical, piss-taking ditty; songs wryly observing the banality of everyday life but inter-cut with a knowing grandeur and tongue-in-cheek posturing. This new album has all of that and also some very interesting new vocal explorations. I particularly marvelled at “Caucasian Blues” where Cocker, against all the odds, managed to sound like the bastard child of John Lydon singing a Monkees number. Truly thrilling. And how I sniggered at these lyrics “I met her in the museum of paleontology, and I make no bones about it”.
The Guardian review of “Further Complications” was less wholeheartedly enthusiastic and wondered “What’s eating Jarvis Cocker? Reviewer Craig McLean found the album lacking Cocker’s customary warmth but also noted that Jarvis had recently announced the end of his marriage. This new angry Jarvis Cocker, seething mass of bitterness though he may be, if the Guardian is to be believed, still managed to tootle down to HMV record store in London and spend 2 hours flogging and signing his CD over the counter. Now that is working class.
Anyway “Pah” and “granny-knickers” to the Guardian, what do they know, and yay to Jarvis Cocker and his new beard. And even if you don’t like this new one, The Jarvis Cocker record from 2006 is always worth another listen.
11 June 2009 at 11:59 am
Ah a fellow Jarvisophile. What’s not to love. I think every Jarvis song is required to mention his love of naughtiness in suburbia and non-natural fibres (i.e. Acyrlic afternoons). Staticy Jarvis ahoy!
13 June 2009 at 6:47 pm
Oh I’m very upset to hear Jarvis and Camille broke up. Such stylish people belong together.