Further Complications

Jarvis Cocker | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 19, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rough Trade Us
• ASIN: B001VE2B2E
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,254 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

His second solo album, following 2006's "Jarvis". Recorded in Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, "Further Complications" contains the more roughed up tunes Cocker has been peddling since parting with Pulp. Look for him on tour this summer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Experience a very good, unusual and diverse listening, May 19, 2009

By 

for jazz music's sake (Warsaw, Poland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Further Complications (Audio CD)

Further Complications" is Jarvis Cocker's second solo album, following the critically acclaimed 2006 "Jarvis".
While visiting Chicago for there performance at last year's Pitchfork Music Festival, Jarvis and his band holed up in Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studio to test out a couple of new songs. They liked the sound, so the crew returned in January to record "Further Complications".
In his notes, Cocker suggests that he hasn't "gone rock", but has "discovered that, with this band, he COULD rock and so he'd be a fool not to (when the situation demanded it)". Despite his claim, the hard-nosed studio rat Albini seems like a fitting choice for the album, considering the increasingly edgy/rock tracks Jarvis has doing since separation with Pulp.
Certainly he goes for a different way: a throwback to an angry glam rock, built on guitar riffs and fuzzy, filthy bass. It's a weird fit with Jarvis, whose musical settings have never appeared to be about rawness or instrumental authenticity. But it works.
The album is about a midlife sexual crisis. It was done by the time he broke up with his wife.
Cocker's lyrics are often autobiographical - he says that he sees his albums as the only record he has of his life - but he wrote these lines years ago while he was in Pulp.
The first taster, "Angela" - which was a free download on his site - has turned up the guitars but is still Jarvis's characteristically seedy pop about a 22-year-old who makes him "feel the sap rising tonight".
"Leftovers", the fourth track, is maybe the first recognisably Jarvis song: it is one of the best songs on the album, a plea for love in the face of a dying relationshipit and revels in the creepiness of older sex ("I fall on your neck like a vampire/ Who faints at the sight of blood").
"Fckingsong" shows a raw, eloquent, desire, the sound of a man who can articulate love but unable to experience it. The 17 year old who circles his love, but finds all their heart needs actually wants is an older lover with a job and a car. What the heart desires is Further Complications, the drama of passion and love.
The album gets better as it goes along, with penultimate track, the lovely "Slush", "Homewrecker!", a punk hoot featuring the saxophone from Steve Mackay, the nice "Hold Still" and the incredible soul number "You're In My Eyes (Discosong)".
Tle latter is " is a measured, elegiac retake on his Pulp-era dancefloor songs: still quite organic sounding, but with a few little touches of French house and so on buried in the mix. Most interestingly, there's a new dimension and depth to his voice, that sounds softer and fuller where once it would've
become shrill and frantic". -Uncut
Overall, a very good and unusual listening.
Jarvis

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cool As A Cucumber Cocker!, September 28, 2009

By 

Alexandra A. Solomon (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Further Complications [Vinyl] (Vinyl)

Mr. Jarvis Cocker rocks out with his c**k out! "Further Complications" is a quality album of grooves so tight it could easily unwind the tensest ball of yarn. After seeing Jarvis perform live at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, I was reminded of his brilliant showmanship, legendary dance grooves, cheeky in-between-song banter, one-of-a-kind voice, and ability to craft the coolest of tunes. Like a fine wine, Jarvis manages to get better and better with age. Pulp was an epic band, but Jarvis is one of the few breakout lead singers from the Nineties era to successfully command a stage on his own. This album showcases a Brit with ballistic talent! Warning: this album is best enjoyed on a turntable!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The new-old Jarvis, May 19, 2009

By 

FabAudrey20 "fabaudrey20" (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Further Complications (Audio CD)

Jarvis Cocker is back again, and like his previous solo album, Jarvis, a lot has happened since you last heard from him. 2009 Jarvis is a changed man, but at times the new man sounds an awful lot like Pulp-era Jarvis.

Most of the album seems to be dedicated to the mid-life crisis man, hotly fumbling after the young twentysomething lasses who cross his path, still the same man who used women like Kleenex over ten years ago, but now knowing that he's past his prime and that "this is no 'mouth-watering proposition.'" He's still got to try though; it's almost like he really can't help himself.

There is just enough of a different side of the man, though, the wistful, wiser man who sees life passing him all too fast. "Hold Still" is a downright beautiful plea for time and the ones he loves to stop slipping through his fingers. It seems that with one hand he wants to hold time still and relish life, and with the other he wants to lift your skirt. Very contradictory, but very Jarvis Cocker.

Overall, though, I think this album comes together quite nicely and seems stronger than 'Jarvis' ever was. His voice is stronger, he's not afraid to scream, but he's also not afraid to whimper "you're everything to me" to her back as she's leaving for good. There is definitely more depth here as the album -- perhaps unintentionally? -- chronicles the end of a marriage and a middle-aged man once again thrust into the wide world, trying to figure out where he fits now. A touching and honest look into the mind of a great, if greatly flawed, man.