It will be interesting to see what chart position it gets tomorrow. His first album got to 37 I think. Given that there's been more promotion behind this one, you'd reckon it will fare a llittle better. I think Graham Coxon's new album went in at 36 last week.

Jarvis/Rough Trade probably chose the most competitive week of the year for releasing new records what with Green Day and Eminem's comebacks also out this week. I don't suppose there's that many Jarvis fans who would buy either of those albums (!) or more to the point - vice-versa,  but the Manics and Madness (first lp in a decade) new efforts also came out on Monday and there's probably a fair cross-over of fans between those acts and Jarvis.
I see it's at number 26 on the amazon chart. I imagine it will be fairly close to that, a bit lower maybe.

-- Edited by Eamonn on Saturday 23rd of May 2009 09:41:40 PM

Personally I'd say I'm pretty diverse:

Marilyn Manson
Pink Floyd (mainly Barrett-era)
Divine Comedy
Sultans Of Ping FC
Slayer

...all among my favourites, plus plenty of others!

Out of the artists Eamonn mentioned, I'm most likely to listen to Eminem & Madness.

anet wrote:

---

A cross-over between Madness and Jarvis fans?? I don't get that one. I won't be buying any of those other albums, but, if I had to get one, it would most likely be Green Day.

---

 Well there's me...and er. James....
Seriously, I would have thought that fans of Pulp/Jarvis  would find something of interest in Suggs'  very English witticisms and Madness' pop hooks. I just got Jarvis and the Manics new ones. Being out of work I couldn't really stretch to a third.

When I was 15 the 3 albums that I wore-out from playing were 'Different Class', 'The Heavy Heavy Hits' (Madness compilation) and 'Too Rye Ay' by Dexys.
 Blimey, shunning guitars or what?! Most of my mates would have been listening to The Offspring or whatever was flavour of the month. (Though I did kinda like 'Pretty Fly for a White Guy'.)

No 19 is good! I wish I'd gone to HMV last Monday now - another missed opportuntiy to meet Jarvis, but couldn't quite stretch to the train fare, being umemployed and having blown the last of my cash seeing Morrissey the weekend before.

Having listened to the new album quite a lot now, I really like it. Personally I don't think it is as 'heavy' in sound as I was expecting from the previews - apart from maybe Fuckingsong, which I like too. I do think some of the lyrics are quite heavy though - funny to see Jarvis getting bit defensive about that when asked in HMV.

Eamonn - I'm not particularly anti-Madness - it's just they will be forever in my mind as those irratating 'nutty' boys from the 80's, with their gimmicky dance, and 'catchy' pop tunes. To be honest I haven't looked much beyond that, so maybe I've missed a whole host of later gems from them.

When not listening to Jarvis/Pulp, I am most likely to be caught listening to The Smiths, James, or Joy Division.

Saw Control at the pics last year. It left me feeling shocked for days, even though I obvioulsy already knew how the ending was going to be.

Another James fan - woo hoo! Best band ever live - they were the band that plugged the huge hole left in my life when Pulp stoped playing. No easy task, by any means.

I got back into James after they reformed. They came back even better than before, after losing the spark a bit in the years before the split . I think James must have going for at least as long as Pulp, starting out back in the early 80's, finally becoming successful in the 90's, splitting in 2001, and coming back in 2007. It's a similar pattern to Pulp there - except for the last bit????

And lead singer Tim Booth's first appearance with the band, was at  Sheffield Leadmill, back in '82.

Apologies for going off topic, but in defence I'm always banging on about Pulp on the James board.

-- Edited by anet on Monday 25th of May 2009 09:18:37 PM

Nineteen is higher than what I'd expected. Good job Jarvis!

On the off topic discussion of what other music Pulp fans listen to, I like The Cure and Muse. I'm another who likes James too, though I have lost touch with what they have done recently. My favourite James song is probably 'I defeat', the b side to 'Just like Fred Astaire'.

I've also had spells listening to the likes of the Goo Goo Dolls, Rialto and Matchbox Twenty a fair bit. Finally (and I know I'll get slaughtered for this) but I dont mind the first two albums from Oasis. MOR? Bad attitude? Yes indeed, but along with a few other bands of that time this music provided the soundtrack to many good nights out etc. in my life, and so always brings back the memories when I hear those tunes.

-- Edited by Deebs on Wednesday 27th of May 2009 11:19:20 AM

Well, I've been listening to it on and off for two weeks now, and I'm sad to report I still think Further Complications is the weakest thing he's ever done; the lyrics are crap, the singing is crap, the tunes are crap, the playing is crap, none of it has grown on me, none of it has seen fit to stay in my head (except the opening bars of the very first song, and the way he enunciates "...profoundly shall-ow"), and I haven't once wanted to actually go and listen to any of it for pleasure, or for reasons other than wanting to persevere and give it a fair crack of the whip. I'm still hoping against hope that I'll hear something in there next time that changes my mind, but right now... I think it's toss.

Sorry.

I quite like Madness.

And now to something completely different...

Are there any news about the new unreleased songs? Because (half done) lyrics to "The Night they let me out of the Home" recently appeared on pulpwiki and as far as I know the song has never been played live... Strange. Is Jarvis working on his own wiki?? Have I missed something?

I have softened some in my initially harsh assessment of this album. I don't think it's necessarily a great album, the way the first solo album was, but it has it's interesting elements, and even some very good ones.

The Pros:

1) Jarvis has made a mid-life crisis album, and this has brought out the panicky side of his songwriting and singing, which I always liked. (See "Countdown.")

2) Any album that has songs like "Hold Still," "Slush," and "Caucasian Blues" can't be all bad.

3) All the songs are catchy, even the ones which aren't very good, such as "Fuckingsong."

4) Everything here is quite energetic. Nobody here sounds tired or uncommitted.

The Cons:

1) The production buries his vocals so you can't make out the lyrics. There's nothing wrong with doing that on, say, a Stooges record, but part of Jarvis' greatness is his literary craft, pretentious as that sounds.

2) I keep harping on this, but while the musician are committed to the task at hand, they do not bring the spark of creativity (and lightness of touch) that Russell, Candida, Nick and Mark would. (Can't necessarily blame Steve Mackey -- he keeps things moving in this band, as a bass player should.)

3) The album is poorly sequenced. "Leftovers" and "I Never Said I Was Deep" are both really good songs, but they sound too alike, especially in tempo.

4) Didn't Jarvis already make a mid-life crisis album -- This is Hardcore?