ArrGee wrote:

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josta59 wrote:

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This was just my reaction toward the general feeling I was getting that many people were rejecting this album for it's non-Different Classness.

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I don't think most of the critics on here expected it to be like Different Class (which, by the way, is not my favourite Pulp Album by some distance), I for one expected a bit more emotion/anger/bitterness, especially after running the world - the whole thing comes across as a bit cold. Though having said that I am still waiting for a copy of Jarvis as a belated birthday pressie so may revise my opinion on second hearing.

http://www.nme.com/reviews/jarvis-cocker/8071

 

Jarv's back, and he's got a few things on his mind...

It's no secret that Jarvis Cocker sees himself as an outsider. But sometime around 2003 it got so bad he quit the country. With Pulp over, a war in Iraq getting nastier by the day and a wife and kid to worry about, more than ever, Jarvis had had enough. And with Pulp's Greatest Hits limping into the charts at Number 71, it seems people had had enough of Jarvis.

I wish I could love this album. I really do.
But whenever I hear of people loving it, I feel excluded.
It is by no means a bad album, and I like it and listen to it sometimes.
But, it doesn't grab me.
If I heard a song of it on the radio (without knowing who it was) or on a mixtape, I wouldn't want to find out who it is, I wouldn't get excited or curious or even interested.

(and it is not at all a problem, that it isn't "pulp". My tastes have long progressed from that.)

-- Edited by clodia at 16:53, 2006-12-07

Actually it was largely a waste of time. One guy thought it was great, one girl enjoyed it though she found it hard to get into, praising 'Fat Children' and the notes on the cd regarding how to listen to the album and the other guy was disappointed, "Jarvis sounds tired...he's not even writing decent lyrics anymore". The host Tom Dunne agreed with him.

And I hope DLHWYT has a radio edit for the single because it does go on a bit, particularly the fade-out.

ArrGee wrote:

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I never worry when a lot of people like something I don't.  

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It's just that when people who appreciate the same band/artist than I do then rave about a new album is the greatest he ever did (admittedly not the case here) and I feel like the only one thinking that the emperor is naked

Very well put Arrgee, I agree with most of what you say - though I'm a bigger fan of the album than you - I'd put it on a par with We Love Life. For some reason my review of the album wont post, half the text gets chopped off when I put it up here.

Here's a review I found which I think is on the money:

 

Jarvis Cocker is not a happy man. Then again, was he ever? Now 43, a father, husband and permanent resident of Paris, the former Pulp frontman/perenially-dissatisfied social commentator has at last gotten around to making his first solo record. It comes a whopping 28 years after first forming the band that made a scrawny brainbox from Sheffield into the spokesman for a generation of vexed students and twenty-somethings. So, then; age, parental responsibilities and a more laid-back pace of life must have dulled his cynicism somewhat, right? Wrong. If anything, Cocker is more wryly rancorous than before; in possession of possibly the most tongue-in-cheek lyrical ingenuity since Morrissey, he skips and stomps around themes of love (optimism-drenched dainty xylophone number Baby's Coming Back to Me), the tedium of domestic bliss (piano-led ballad I Will Kill Again) and his disgust at society's perpetual ignorance ('The parents are the problem/ Giving birth to maggots without the sense they become flies' - Fat Children).Backed by former bandmates Richard Hawley (guitar) and Steve Mackey (bass), Jarvis finds its protagonist willing and able to bandy several musical styles about; there's a plush, almost cinematic bent to the brief instrumental interludes Loss Adjuster Excerpts 1 & 2; standout track Black Magic feels almost Spector-ish with its deep throb, fuzzy jangle and retro pop air, and Disney Time dabbles in off-kilter gospel and heavy string passages. Perhaps writing for both Nancy Sinatra and Charlotte Gainsbourg in recent times has contributed to his experimental course - even Tonite feels like it would best be heard in a dusky Texan bar, until the aforementioned Morrisseyan lyric kicks in: 'Somebody falls in love/ Somebody falls from a windowsill'. Cocker's delivery is as deadpan as ever, his voice fluctuating between his trademark nasal snipe and his deep baritone (best heard on the expansive-sounding Quantum Theory.) It's not until hidden track Ruling the World kicks in after thirty-odd minutes of silence that we learn of Cocker's last-gasp societal lament, its refrain stating that 'C*nts are still ruling the world'. Indeed they are, Jarvis; but as long as we have people like you singing about them, we'll be all right.




CD Review by Lauren Murphy
Reviewed on 04 December 2006

someone mentionned i will kill again being about a so called serial killer. cant find that quote. what was his name again ?

For months now I've been mostly avoiding this album because I had a nasty feeling I'd be crushingly disappointed. And no one needs that in their life, do they? The little bits I've heard here and there (mainly TV appearances) haven't really done much to disabuse me of this notion.

Anyway, at the weekend someone got me it for my birthday (20), and I'm currently halfway through giving it a spin for the first time. It's actually pretty OK in places - I'd expected something on the order of Bowie circa Never Let Me Down - or the Stones since the '80s, I suppose. But there's far more going on here than that. So far the two Nancy songs, I Will Kill Again and Disney Time (which has a melody extraordinarily like something The Auteurs might have done circa After Murder Park, which might be why I like it) are proving quite enjoyable, while From Auschwitz To Ipswich seems like it could be a major grower with time. Well well well, maybe we don't need to pretend he's dead after all.

Absolutely lovely cover artwork as well. Welcome back, The Designers Republic.

-- Edited by Sturdy at 17:52, 2006-12-11

Also, the first bit of A to I sounds very much like a double-speed To The End by Blur doesn't it?

Fuss Free wrote:

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Having given it some time to sink in, I think it's a passable album with a few moments of greatness. If Jarvis plans to put out more records with greater frequency then I'm willing to forgive this album for it's weaknesses. However, I will not be waiting around for another 3 years for another record like this.

At this point, I figure I like about 1 in every 3 songs that Jarvis puts out. So if he can put out one album a year, then I should end up with an album's worth of good material every 3 years. Wishful thinking?  

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Very wishful. The man is and never will be as prolific at song-writing as Ryan Adams, Bruce Springsteen etc.

And of course you'll be hear in 3 years time to proclaim nagging disappointment at his next record - being a Pulp/Jarvis fan is hard to shake off, you should know that by now.

Eamonn wrote:

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Sturdy wrote:

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For months now I've been mostly avoiding this album because I had a nasty feeling I'd be crushingly disappointed.

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Why? I thought you liked We Love Life and Running The World.

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Why?? Come off it, we all know he's not as good as he used to be!

Flippancy aside, I thought Running The World was OK but nothing to get excited about (and it sounds far too much like Everybody Wants To Rule The World by Tears For Fears). We Love Life was five years ago, with most of the songs being written seven years ago. I've not much cared for anything he's done since then and just sort of assumed he was finished. Seems I was a bit hasty!

I'll post more on the new album when I get chance, but I like the fact that it's a more subtle and complex piece of work than it first appears to be, and the sense of freedom that seems to have resulted from him freeing himself from the twin constraints of trying to make pop music for mass acceptance (which I don't think ever really suited him 100%, with the odd exception) and working within the framework of Pulp.