While you are listening to the Pulp hit “Disco 2000,” about a loser and an illusion, you feel the height of all the Pulp History in this song. A naif illusion. But it’s ironic, this song changed the fate of his composer, singer, and Alma Matter of Pulp, Mr. Jarvis Cocker.
After Pulp disbanded, Cocker, the only one permanent member of the band, released his first solo album simply titled Jarvis in 2006.
Before continuing, we must ask ourselves a question, was Pulp really a band? I mean, normally in a band at least two people are involved in composing and making arrangements, sometimes one person writes the songs and involves other members of the band to prepare arrangements. This is the way bands normally solve musical problems. You don’t have a band when the musical leader does the entire job.
We have here an Lp that sounds exactly like the last singles from Pulp (ex. “Last Day of the Miners' Strike”). Did Cocker do all the work in the band? Or did not he have enough of his own musical ideas? Maybe the latter is the right option, if you notice that some songs have less effort in musical arrangements. When the member of a band starts his solo career you expect a different sound, for better or worse.
The Lp opens with a little instrumental track (“Loss Adjuster”) and then continues with one of the highlights, the perfect pop song “Don't Let Him Waste Your Time” and then continues with “Black Magic” that uses a sample of the characteristic part of the 70’s hit “Crimson & Clover”.
“Heavy Weather” could be another Pulp song and on “I Will Kill Again” the cheap keyboards attack again. (Lazy arrangements, as I said Jarvis doesn’t have a good enough voice to sing warmly, only with the keyboard.).
Some people need to be sad to compose good music (an unfortunally example is Cobain), some people loose thier charm when they growth old, and Jarvis is one of them. He’s not a loser anymore, he’s a family man singing “Baby's Coming Back to Me”, “Disney Time” and “Fat Children”. He’s now a different class of common people, he’s the kind of person that wants to have a boring life after he's lived all the emotions, cried all the tears, and bled all the blood. But it’s not the end of the world baby! Lennon recorded his best solo songs after five years being a housekeeper. (Double Fantasy could be the best Lennon LP without the one on one song with Yoko.)
It’s a good album if you miss Pulp, but it isn’t a new This is Hardcore. Maybe Cocker needs to wait a couple of years to start his solo career if he just wants to be Jarvis.
Published on Blogcritics on 28-05-2007
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