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.
