I have this mental image of Jarvis Cocker sitting outside a Parisian coffee bar watching the world scratching its collective head over his second solo album Further Complications.
The truth is that I admire his contribution to music and there is a lot I admire about his artistic honesty as well. It is also true that I wanted to like this album as soon as I pressed the play button. However, I have to say that the first play left me more than a bit confused. Sure there were some great lines leaping out at me, on the title track and “Leftovers” in particular, but something was confusing me.
In the end I wondered whether I would give this album two, three, or four more plays if it was by anyone other than Jarvis Cocker? I guess my already eager anticipation was distorted by the fact that it was produced by Steve Albini. This is the guy who has worked with The Pixies, Nirvana, and The Manic Street Preachers, among loads of others. Surely, his analogue inspired touch combined with the caustic wit of Mr. Pulp himself would ring my bell straight from the off. Wouldn't it?
Then suddenly several plays down the line it began to click and very slowly those qualities started to emerge like a view through a haze. Why I hadn’t seen it before is probably more evidence of the distorting effect of anticipation.
Up until that point I had even been tempted to commit the reviewers cardinal sin of having a sneaky look to see what everyone else was thinking. I was that bemused. I guess it was the point that the image of Jarvis sitting, drinking coffee, and stroking his beard in amused contemplation came into my mind.
Inevitably his work with Pulp will always be something of a benchmark for anything he will ever do. Rightly so, he was their main creative source for nearly a quarter of a century. Arguably Pulp reached something of a commercial peak with the album Different Class.
They released singles such as “Common People” and the controversial “Sorted For E’s And Wizz”, which despite being widely banned reached number 2 in the UK charts. It is a disturbing twist of fate that I am writing this review on the day after Michael Jackson died. Who can forget the moment when Jarvis Cocker invaded Jackson’s stage during the Brit Awards in the mid-nineties?
Article comments