Customer Reviews

Further Complications

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

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

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!

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.

I've always enjoyed Jarvis Cocker's lyrics and songwriting, but have never been in love with Pulp's music. This solo offering seems to be designed for semi-fans like me. The stripped down and more "rawkin" approach to the music on this album works quite well. It works because the band is good and the songs well written and funny. Clearly Jarvis is enjoying himself here, giving the album a nice lift. F____ingsong and Caucasian Blues are my favorite rockers here - on C.B. Jarvis successfully chanels Johnny Lydon. Some of the more mellow songs, like Leftovers or Slush, are even better. The only flaw musically is the sax in Homewrecker, an otherwise great song. This is a fun mid-life crisis album. These songs about lust and aging could come across as creepy or misogynistic, but Jarvis is too smart and real to fall into those traps.

Much much better than his previous effort. This is a stunning work by someone I was not expecting to be able to renew himself so completely. Not only is this record more "rock"-ish and less wimpy than his previous effort, it is also extremely diverse in sound and impact on the listener. This is certainly due on the one hand to Jarvis's talent (that I had somewhat underetsimated) but on the other hand to the genius production of Steve Albini (Big black etc) who gives this record an inc redible full sound with lots of punch even on the lighter tracks.

A darker sound of grunge mixed with 60's esque guitar an disco with a hint of horror and rockabilly.

Britpop's most enduring rockstar, poet, funnyman and bon vivant returns with FURTHER COMPLICATIONS. With a familiar mix of raucous stompers and spoken/sung story-songs, the album finds Jarvis tackling all kinds of complications as he wanders supermarkets, museums and discos en route to the boudoir that's the center of his (imaginary?) hardcore life. As usual the lyrics display his sly Brit-wit. He gives advice to writers on "Further Complications": "Don't write a novel/A shopping list is better." He cracks jokes on "Leftovers" ("I met her in the museum of paleontology/And I make no bones about it") and "I Never Said I was Deep" ("But I am profoundly shallow.") He finds temptation hard to resist in "Angela" ("she's nearly 23") and "Homewrecker!" ("going down with all hands tonight"). But wakes up to disappointment in "Caucasian Blues" ("I've heard it said that you are hung/Like a white man.") He'll have his way with you if he can, but remember, it's all in fun and sometimes a song is just a "F---ingsong."

Jarvis Cocker's sophomore disc "Further complications" takes one back to the mid nineties when Britpop was at its peak with acts like Blur, oasis, and his alma mater Pulp. Filled with catchy upbeat rockers, it sounds even more Pulp-like than his eponymous debut.

Everything standouts really; the opening title track (with semi biographical lyrics - "I was 3 weeks late coming out of the womb, in no great rush to join the rest of mankind"), the Beatles-esque "Angela", the instrumental "Pilchard", the spoken/sung ballad "Leftovers", the ballad "I never said I was deep" (with vulnerable confessional lyrics), "Homewrecker" (with a nice long intro), the retro sounding ballad "Hold still", and the Bluesy Rocker "Caucasian blues" (with some frenetic drumming and fiery singing),

Other standouts are the spoken/sung ballad "Slush" (with lyrics on global warming, no less), and the lengthy groovy Disco-tinged closing cut "You're in my eyes (Discosong)" (which has spoken lo-fi sounding verses in his best Bowie impression, a "Theme from Shaft" meets Barry White chorus, and a droning coda). Edgy and experimental, my absolute favourite song on the disc!

This is an album that gets better the more you play it. Nice!

I was looking forward for this album, unfortunatley, this is just uninspired, time to pull the plug, ugh...I cannot beleive this man was part of Pulp.

Jarvis used to be capable of writing good melodic music but he can't muster a decent tune on this album. Big disappointment with annoying production.