I've lived with the album for a while now, and still love it, though I'd say for me it really picks up with "Black Magic" and then dips a bit on the last three, not counting Cunts of course.

Scores a la Eurovision:

1. Don't let him waste your time : 5/10


2. Black Magic : 6/10


3. Heavy Weather : 8/10


4. I Will Kill Again : 10/10


5. Baby's coming back to me: 6/10


6. Fat Children : 7/10


7. From A to I : 9/10


8. Disney Time 10/10


9. Tonite: 5/10


10. Big Julie : 4/10


11. Quantum Theory : 5/10


12. Running the world : 8/10

I am fond of DLHWYT as an induvidual entity, but compared to the rest of the material I think its a strange choice of opener, let alone single. The oddness continues with the feeling that it does not match up to Nancy Sinatra's version in general style or production, stranger still is the fact that the video for the song literally puts it "on the back seat". Obviously far closer to Jarvis's heart then mine!

Going back to Nancy; her version of "Baby's coming back to me" is really brilliant, I think. It captures the 60's girl group schmalz beautifully, and sounds like a genuine lost nugget of a by gone era. while his version has its charms, it just doesn't match up - oddly I did always prefer Mott the Hoople's version of All the young dudes too....

It beats me why "Heavy Weather" (why not Stormy?) wasn't a lead off single, Radio 2 were even playing it before the album was out! The real gem for me on this album is Disney Time, which I expect Jarvis saw as a kind of Blue Print for the sound he wanted to explore on this record. The choral singing is inspired, and the song builds beautifully, yet simply to a wonderful end, clocking in at under three minutes (I think).

The drum production on Black Magic is inspired, indeed this is more of a sound based work than a bona fide song, not that there's anything wrong with that as an album track per se, but why track 2? The pacing of the record seems rather strange, for want of a better way to put it.

Tonite, pleasant production aside, reeks of filler. And this is where it goes a bit off - "the future". He says something like "Pasteurize the future" on this song, then on the follwing "Big Julie" he goes on about how "you can almost see the future shine" - too much lyrical similarity too close together, on two songs that really don't cut the mustard.

"Big Julie" is the sole track on the album I just can't stand. I'm usually not one for skipping as I tend to try and listen to an album as it was intended, but no. The subject matter, for a writer of Jarvis's stature is piss poor; a song about a lonely girl who finds comfort in a song on the radio - its all a bit latter day Brett Anderson in its language - recalling a Suede b-side called "Duchess" who:

"Sits alone over 13 stone, by the telephone etc..."

Even the bloody Corrs have a song about listening to the radio.

the musical arrangement seems similarly bland and clumsy - not hitting the nail on the head like "Black Magic"'s intentional simplicity or having the flute tinged grace of something like "I will kill again". It also recalls the Divine Comedy, not that that need be a bad thing, but its just another artist on the list of "sounds like" , when the song should sound like Jarvis.

For all its clever clever musical touches, "Quantum theory" has a similarly tedious (and lazy) ending refrain of "everthing is gonna be alright". It sounds like it was written in a hurry specifically as a "end of album" song, and being told that everything is gonna be alright is like something off an Oasis album, or a killers one.

Then there's the salvation, after three sub standard tracks comes in running the world, thank fuck! Why the half hour gap?

 

When its good its really good, but when its bad I go to pieces.

why does everyone hate Big Julie so much? i think it's a great piano-led ballad that jarvis sings with lots of conviction. at one point, it was a go to track for me.

I've gone and rejiggered the album slightly and made it more to my liking. How so?

First step, I eliminated Fat Children altogether. Although I like that song on it's own, something about it feels strangly uncomfortable and a bit slapdash when placed in context with the rest of the album.

Second, I flipped the order of Tonite and DLHWYT. The latter never felt right to me, but putting it farther into the album makes it seem less annoying, and in fact gives the second half of the album a much needed kick in the arse. Tonite makes a great lead off track, and sets the mood for the rest of the album. It works well. Try it.

Finally, and this is the most dramatic and contraversial change, I've replaced Fat Children with Jarv's collaboration with Alpha "This is Where I Came In". It fits flawlessly with the overall 60's lo-fi vibe of the solo album and the misanthropic lyrics work well in context with the rest of the album. On my redux, it actually stands out as the album's torchsong.

Try it out on your iPod and see what you think before you judge me.

I'm glad I read the reviews here before I managed to get the album sent to China because reading all the criticism made it all the more of a pleasant surprise. I don't think I have anything bad to say about it at all.

Fuss Free wrote:

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I've gone and rejiggered the album slightly and made it more to my liking. How so?

First step, I eliminated Fat Children altogether. Although I like that song on it's own, something about it feels strangly uncomfortable and a bit slapdash when placed in context with the rest of the album.

Second, I flipped the order of Tonite and DLHWYT. The latter never felt right to me, but putting it farther into the album makes it seem less annoying, and in fact gives the second half of the album a much needed kick in the arse. Tonite makes a great lead off track, and sets the mood for the rest of the album. It works well. Try it.

Finally, and this is the most dramatic and contraversial change, I've replaced Fat Children with Jarv's collaboration with Alpha "This is Where I Came In". It fits flawlessly with the overall 60's lo-fi vibe of the solo album and the misanthropic lyrics work well in context with the rest of the album. On my redux, it actually stands out as the album's torchsong.

Try it out on your iPod and see what you think before you judge me.

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Fuss can u give us yer revised running order for "Jarvis" please Sir?

Fuss Free wrote:

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This is what I ended up with:

1- Loss Adjuster 1

2- Tonite

3- Black Magic

4- Heavy Weather

5- I Will Kill Again

6- Baby's Coming Back to Me

7- THis is Where I Came In

8- From A to I 

9- Disney Time

10- Don't Let Him Waste Your Time

11- Loss Adjuster 2

12 - Big Julie

13- Quantum Theory 

 

I just like it better this way. As I said before, I find DLHWYT too jarring and awkward to be the first (real) song, and Fat Children just doesn't work for me. So I moved DLHWYT to the second side and replaced Fat Children with This is Where I Came In because I like that song and I think it fits the overall mood of the album.

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That's cool gonna try that as alt running order, as IMHO the album has too many peaks and troughs. Jarvis plays Fat Children as opener to get it out the way.....but the message and music on that track are fooking great...should have been a stand alone single, not on Jarvo. Cunts are still running the record companies and A&R world. Good on ya to have the vision to change the running order.