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It has been 12 years since Pulp’s “Common People” and “Disco 2000”, sung by this character who has remained in the shadows for years. Jarvis Cocker, after writing lyrics for Charlotte Gainsbourg’s latest work, returns with his first solo album, composed of Pop sounds and, of course, that Brit Pop which so characterized the English music scene of the nineties. This can be immediately understood from the second track “Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time.”
But the album contains two masterpieces, which, as always, come at the end. “Quantum Theory” is a piece that impresses right from the first listen. Acoustic guitars, Cocker’s deep and low voice, pronouncing the only hopeful words of the album:
“Somewhere gravity cannot reach us anymore, somewhere we’re not alone. Everything is gonna be alright”
Sounds never heard from him before. At some points, it seems more like a Nick Cave piece, but the ending seems to seek a glorious way out in a society led by bastards, as the English singer says. This thesis of his is relegated to the back of the album, in the ghost track and first single extracted “Running the world,” another masterpiece. With this track positioning, Cocker wants to tell us that the best things are always done at the end, when you don’t realize what you have done in a period of your life when you wouldn’t expect anything exciting.
Jarvis Cocker’s album is a good album and stands out from other musical releases of this period, which are few and, many, very poor (sorry for the pun : D).
The remnants of Pulp are especially heard in “Heavy Weather” and “Big Julie,” while in other tracks, the English singer becomes familiar with very different sounds: “Black Magic” seems like a late nineties pop piece. “I Will Kill Again” and “Disney Time,” slow and disturbing at the same time. Instead sweet “Baby’s coming back to me” and “Tonite”, a song dated in the sounds “From A To I” and an Indie Rock piece that surprises everyone: “Fat Children.”
Nothing new on the English front then, just a collection of very good tracks reminiscent of bygone times and capable of creating very contrasting sensations in just over an hour. Jarvis Cocker’s maturity is to be praised, both in terms of music and what he wrote in the lyrics, in which he opened up and wanted to describe especially English society.
“Jarvis” is worth listening to anyway, given that in these years finding a noteworthy album is really very difficult.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Heavy Weather (03:51)
This morning it was summer
By noon a cold front building
Where did you go?
Where did you go?
I got to find some shelter
'Cos any minute now
It's gonna blow
It's gonna blow
But I don't mind the rain
So strike me once again:
I've got nothing to lose
And it looks like we are in for stormy weather
With death and destruction coming through
Oh, look out there she blows
Now everybody knows:
Stormy weather always makes me think of you
And watch out 'cos the storm is coming through
But you're so still and silent
Whilst everything's dissolving
Melting away, melting away
But I don't mind the rain
So strike me once again
I got nothing to lose
Yeah, it looks like we are in for stormy weather
With death and destruction coming through
Oh, look out there she blows
Now everybody knows:
Stormy weather always makes me think of you
Oh and it looks like we are in for stormy weather
With death and destruction coming through
Oh, look out there she blows
Now everybody knows:
Stormy weather always makes me think of you
And watch out 'cos this storm is coming through
Yeah, watch out 'cos the storm is coming through
07 Fat Children (03:25)
Last night I had a little altercation
They wobbled menacingly
Beneath the yellow street light it became a situation
Well, they wanted my brand-new phone with all the pictures of the kids and the wife
A struggle ensued and then fat children took my life
Fat children took my life
Fat children took my life
Fat children took my life
Well, some passers-by took me to the station
The police force was elsewhere,
putting bullets in some guy's head for no particular reason
So I died in the back of the cab
but I'll be back to haunt them
This thing does not end here
My spirit walks the streets of Tottenham
Singing:
Fat children took my life
Fat children took my life
Fat children took my life
Oh, the parents are the problem
Giving birth to maggots without the sense to become flies
So pander to your pampered little princess
of such enormous size
08 From Auschwitz to Ipswich (03:51)
"They want our way of life"
Well, they can take mine any time they like
'Cos god knows - I know I ain't living right:
I'm wrong
Oh, I know I'm so wrong
So like the Roman Empire fell away
Let me tell you; we are going the same way
Ah, behold the Decline and Fall
All hold hands with our backs to the wall
It's the end:
Why don't you admit it?
It's the same from Auschwitz to Ipswich
Evil comes
I know from not where
But if you take a look inside yourself -
maybe you'll find some in there
Not one single soul was saved
I was ordering an Indian takeaway
I was spared whilst others went to an early grave
Oh, got stoned
Yeah, went out and got stoned
Well if your ancestors could see you standing there
They would gaze in wonder at your Frigidaire
They had to fight just to survive
So can't you do something with your life?
It's the end:
Why don't you admit it?
It's the same from Auschwitz to Ipswich
Evil comes
I know from not where
But if you take a look inside yourself -
maybe you'll find some in there
Here it comes, why don't you embrace it?
You lack the guts needed to face it
Say goodbye to the way you've been living
You never realised you were on the wrong side
And nobody's going to win
"They want our way of life"
Well, they can take mine any time they like
11 Big Julie (04:43)
She’s by herself again
in the quiet secret night
Below the neighbour’s window
hands in pockets, head on one side
And the radio plays an unknown song
that has nothing at all to do with God
But it’s miles away
from this sad town
and the stupid kids who get her down
Just wait until Big Julie rules the world
Big Julie rules the world
Well, the radio still plays
floating beyond time
like the greatest people in the world
all springing up and feeling fine
And it’s far away
from these sweaty lads
who say that boys
cannot be slags
And if it’s not them
then it’s their dads
Like the guy who felt
her up in class
And the Sunday-School teacher
who said she had beautiful breasts
and the local radio DJ
who is so obviously obsessed Yeah,
form an orderly queue when Big Julie rules the world
Big Julie rules the world.
Yeah, go and chase your dreams
but if your dreams are not your own
then wouldn’t it be better
just to work things out at home?
And she knows sex is just for dummies anyway
something you do when you’ve run out of things to say
But this song will play
until the light
It’s the sound of her trying
to find something to like
the sound of her walking
day and night
And this song may lead her
far away
but tonight it seems to light the way
And she can almost see the future shine
And everything’s in tune
and everything’s in time
And it will play until the day
Big Julie rules the world
Big Julie rules the world
14 Running the World (04:44)
Well did you hear, there's a natural order?
Those most deservin' will end up with the most?
That the cream cannot help but always rise up to the top
Well I say, "Shit floats"
If you thought things had changed
Friend, you'd better think again
Bluntly put, in the fewest of words:
Cunts are still runnin' the world
Cunts are still runnin' the world
Now the workin' classes are obsolete
They are surplus to society's needs
So let 'em all kill each other
And get it made overseas
That's the word don't ya know
From the guys that's runnin' the show
Lets be perfectly clear boys and girls:
Oh cunts are still runnin' the world
Cunts are still runnin' the world
Ah yeah!
Oh yeah!
Oh feed your children on crayfish and lobster tails
Find a school near the top of the league
In theory I respect your right to exist
I will kill ya if you move in next to me
Ah, it stinks, it sucks
It's anthropologically unjust
Oh but the takin's are up by a third
Oh so cunts are still runnin' the world
Yeah cunts are still running the world, ah yeah!
(Cunts are still running the world) Ohh!
(Cunts are still running the world)
The free market is perfectly nat'ral
Do you think that I'm some kind o' dummy?
It's the ideal way to order the world
Fuck the morals, does it make any money?
And if you don't like it? Then leave
Or use your right to protest on the street
Yeah, use your right but don't imagine that it's heard
No, not whilst cunts are still runnin' the world
Yeah, cunts are still runnin' the world
Yeah cunts are still runnin' the world!
Yeah cunts are still runnin' the world!
Oh cunts are still runnin' the world!
Cunts are still runnin' the.. world!
Cunts are still runnin'... the world..
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Other reviews
By Targetski
"In this album, Cocker, bitter and disillusioned, sings the story of a chilling disillusionment, with very few or almost no hopes or ways out."
"He warns on the surface of the CD that the album 'should not be used as a sedative,' writes verses of extraordinary finesse and wit, and, most importantly, still writes great songs."
