Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis

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.