Tonight, Jarvis is what we share, an endless dream.
Text: Bruno Moonbyrd | Translation: dilettante
When I told others I was brainstorming for a review on Jarvis Cocker’s new album, the collective responses blended into a harmonised nostalgia for Britpop, followed with regretting not flying to Taiwan for his concert.
Nostalgia yes, but not so much to be wanting Pulp to reform. In the heat of Britpop, ‘Babies’, ‘Do You Remember the First Time?’, ‘Common People’, ‘Sorted For E’s & Wizz’ and ‘Disco 2000’ are the anthems of the golden era. Pulp’s first two album, ‘it’ and ‘Freaks’ are mostly forgettable, their second-hand market value lies solely on the name of the band. Pulp’s later development, or ‘radical evolution’ so to speak, is not unlike The Flaming Lips. The rest is much known history.
When long-time band member Russell Senior made his departure, Jarvis started his low-profile life. A farewell to the prior party lifestyle, ‘This is Hardcore’ seemed a fitting description for the beginning of an end. ‘The Trees’ was an obvious statement on his ‘back to basic’ life. Pulp may be gone, but Jarvis remains. First came Relaxed Muscle, a lo-fi dirty disco band. The new venture was mainly for self satisfactory though, the music dubbed ‘worse than early Pulp’ by some. Then it is Jarvis the solo man.
The solo Jarvis is hardly ‘back to basic’. The debut album ‘Jarvis’ is a nod to Scott Walker. No more weird moves on the stage, it is all a very grown up affair. It is a shame that the songs in the ‘Jarvis’ album are less than consistent, with only ‘Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time’ and ‘Baby’s Coming Back to Me’ being the highlights. The rest are, in essence, b-side quality. Three years was not enough for the solo man, it seemed.
With the album being less than successful, Jarvis’s path hit another rough patch with the divorce. Jarvis made an appearance in Pitchfork Music Festival in July last year, where he bumped into Steve Albini. It was not long before the two ‘avant-garders’ recorded some trial songs in the studio and decided to work together. Their joining forces was extremely surprising, even if it sounds as if I have just copied this description straight out of a press release. Steve’s CV boasts musicians such as Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Pixies and Mono, hence many miles away from Jarvis’s genre. It was soon the two finished recording ‘Further Complications’. Jarvis once said he hired Steve as the producer because ‘It was very cheap’.
Steve is known for his take on the analogue sound, so raw and fuzzy sound is in throughout ‘Further Complications’. Jarvis’s performance is back in good form — if he was somewhat confused in his last album, he is his dazzling self this time. Jarvis denied going back to rock, however, the volume in this album is definitely up. First single ‘Further Complications’ is a suffocating and noisy guitar sound; ‘Angela’ is one catchy melody; Steve Mackey (as appeared in The Stooges ‘Funhouse’) guest appears in ‘Homewrecker!’. With the garage rock sound and Jarvis’s wild vocal performance, it is easily the most stimulating track in this album. ‘Leftovers’ is melancholic, the self-reflecting word reciting reminds one of Lou Reed; the playfully weird ‘Pilchard’ and gloomy ‘I Never Said I was Deep’ were also gems.
The US edition of ‘Further Complications’ is in slightly different arrangement (compare to UK edition), with two bonus tracks.
