Jarvis Cocker: Jarvis

The Jarvis Cocker Record

Best song: I Will Kill Again

Worst song: Heavy Weather

Overall grade: 4

More than five years separate the final Pulp album and this, Jarvis’ first solo effort, although to be fair he was working on other things in that time too – most notably, a guest role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where he actually contributes three really good magically-themed songs and performs at the Yule Ball, basically just making an already-great movie even better. I’d guess that the songs here were written and recorded sporadically between his other commitments, as the album as a whole does seem a bit disjointed. Some of these sessions produced songs which are minor classics, while others are less than inspired.

There are two excerpts from an unreleased song, at the very beginning and near the end of the album, known as ‘Loss Adjuster’. They’re pretty piano pieces. In my notes, I have ‘I like Loss Adjuster’ written as I listened to the first one, and when I got to the second, ‘I still like Loss Adjuster’. There’s little else to say about it.

First real song is ‘Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time’ and lyrically it’s similar to Pulp, especially from the ‘His ‘N’ Hers’ era, but the production is not as perfectly polished and it’s less poppy. It works well as an opener with its mix of familiar and unfamiliar. Following on is ‘Black Magic’ which is very, very different, quite a lot heavier with a jumpy backing that reminds me a little of Talking Heads, only nowhere near as good, because this song doesn’t stay with me and honestly, I have no idea what it’s about.

I really don’t understand why ‘Heavy Weather’ was included. It has rain sound effects all the way through, which basically sums up everything that’s wrong with it, and it’s just so dull, with no real substance. Make a serious improvement to this album by removing this song and replacing with ‘Can You Dance Like A Hippogriff’ from Harry Potter.

Luckily, after its mostly inauspicious start, we get a real winner: ‘I Will Kill Again’ is amazingly chilling; a very creepy song from the point of view of a stalker observing his victim, and it’s a really interesting and perceptive look at someone with such a messed up mind. At the start the melody is slow and sinister, as you might expect, but later on, it takes more the form of a traditional love ballad, which is actually even MORE disturbing.

‘Baby’s Coming Back To Me’ is justified in its existence, I guess, by its delicate melody and good description of the feeling you get after receiving good news, where everything else seems good too. However, it never picks up any momentum and feels a bit lifeless throughout. That’s actually a problem that persists throughout the record. The best Pulp songs work so well because they masterfully build to a crescendo, while here many tunes remain static. ‘Disney Time’ makes a weak attempt at such a build right at the end, but it is, sadly, too little too late – a real shame, because the ideas behind the song and the first verse are impressive.

‘Fat Children’ is pretty hilarious the first time you listen to it, with its satirical lyrics and over the top cries of ‘Fat children took my liiiiife!’ Musically it doesn’t hold up so well, it’s a little repetitive and I like it less with each time I hear it. ‘Tonite’ also feels pretty stale, but did so from the first time I heard it, because it’s basically just recycling ideas from previous albums. Listenable, but adds nothing.

The other song I’m 100% in support of is ‘From Auschwitz to Ipswich’. It’s hopeless and depressing with good, insightful social commentary and a wonderful melody, so, in short, everything Jarvis is good at, and both the musical theme and the lyrics are very memorable, almost haunting.

For the most part, the lyrics on this album are very good, but they don’t do that nosy-neighbour, storytelling thing that I love about Pulp songs. The only song that does continue that tradition is ‘Big Julie’, and while it doesn’t reach the heights of ‘Wickerman’ or ‘Common People’, it’s a worthy continuation of the tradition, with an interesting character and some of the best lyrics on the album: see ‘Yeah, go and chase your dreams/But if your dreams are not your own/Then wouldn't it be better/just to work things out at home?’

‘Quantum Theory’ ends the album proper on a good note. It’s beautifully sung with a lot of emotion and quite cryptic in a way, not giving too much away about the story behind it, but definitely relating to a lost, maybe-dead lover, and the narrator’s way of coping; imagining them in a parallel universe where things worked out. It’s an idiosyncratic take on a love song and in that way it reminds me of ‘Something Changed’ from Different Class.

But there is a bonus track after 25-odd minutes of silence, ‘Running the World’. Although I can’t disagree with its message, it shouldn’t be there, and – dare I say it – someone with such a talent for lyricism shouldn’t need to use so many swear words.

This album is worth owning if you like Pulp or quirky singer-songwriters. Probably it’ll become the kind of thing that you rarely play all the way through, but have a few songs that you listen to a lot. Its towering highs make it more than worthy of a passing grade, but there’s enough I don’t like to guarantee it’ll never be a favourite. Jarvis is talented on his own but his style is dramatically different – and he’s allowed to change, but I’m still allowed to prefer things the old way.

Pulp: We Love Life

We Love Life

Best song: Wickerman

Worst song: Roadkill

Overall grade: 5

One thing I really respect is a band that knows when it’s time to stop. Pulp are, without a doubt, one of these bands. ‘We Love Life’ is the sound of a group who have done all they can for music, and want to bow out on a high note rather than fading into the pits of mediocrity. And there was certainly no secret made of its being their last album – on the back of the liner notes, you can see the band in a campervan driving away, one of them holding up a sign saying ‘Bye’. I definitely think they did this the right way. This album is their most mature release, but it’s not quite as strong as the last two, and not as unique either (this is possibly down to the change in producers, though).

When I write reviews, I usually like to focus on the little details that make songs great, but Pulp are really more about the overall picture, the way just the sound of their songs is grandiose, epic, angry, confident, life-affirming and full of pride. Even the weaker songs are swept up in this and it elevates them. It’s probably why I like ‘Weeds’ so much despite it being exactly like all their other album openers, or ‘The Night That Minnie Timperley Died’ despite it being so rushed (it was written in ten minutes, which I only recently found out but wasn’t surprised by at all.) The only song that really disappoints me is ‘Roadkill’, because it has potential but never seems to get going.

‘Wickerman’ is brilliant, just brilliant. It would be easy to just get engrossed by the story being told through the lyrics. But that would disregard the music, which goes a long way to enhance the story. The way Jarvis’ voice moves so easily from singing to speaking to somewhere in between is so clever, really adds to the overall effect. The story Jarvis tells is about a river that runs underneath a city that the narrator likes to walk along to see where it goes, and near the end it occurred to me that the river is actually the sewers. That’s a twisted and disgusting interpretation of what might otherwise be quite a an everyday sort of story, and it’s morbidly fascinating.

There’s a couple of other career-highlight tracks too. ‘I Love Life’ is, according to iTunes, the song I play most, and it shows that Jarvis isn’t out of quirky lyric lines yet. I love the double meanings of ‘Mum & Dad have sentenced you to life’ and ‘I love my life; it’s the only reason I’m alive’. The song sounds contented and laid-back, with a clear message: you can only work with what you have, and it might be hard but it’s always best to be happy about it. ‘Sunrise’, too, is a wonderful swansong. Jarvis used to hate mornings, shown in songs like ‘Monday Morning’ and ‘Bar Italia’. Here he doesn’t. He sees that mornings have all kinds of possibilities; a new start, like the one he’s about to have… oh, yeah, this is also the only Pulp song that’s not necessarily lyrics-based. The second half is instrumental and it’s a great, uplifting sound.

I’m also going to quickly shout out to ‘Bob Lind’ which most people don’t like, but I do. Yes, the lyrics are about how much being famous sucks, hardly new ground for the band, but the music’s really good. Also, ‘Bad Cover Version’ because of its cute, off-the-wall pop culture references in the final verse. Try to listen to that verse without smiling. I dare you.

Previous Pulp records, ‘His ‘N’ Hers’ in particular, felt very synthetic. On the contrary, ‘We Love Life’ is natural, and you can see that in the plants growing around the band’s name on the cover, in the titles of some of the songs, and in the fact that money from selling the CD is donated to Future Forests. This is a band who have always been about fighting for the underdog, and now they-re fighting for trees – who are really the ultimate underdog, because they can’t fight for themselves.

I ‘borrowed’ Jarvis Cocker’s first solo album from my dad and downloaded it to my iPod. I’ve listened to it but I haven’t formed an opinion yet – when I do, I’m sure I’ll review it here.

Pulp: This Is Hardcore

This Is Hardcore

Best song: This Is Hardcore

Worst song: TV Movie

Overall grade: 6

On ‘His ‘N’ Hers’, Pulp were very much a pop band with the arty side only occasionally coming out to play. On ‘Different Class’, they struck the perfect balance between the two to create a defining album of the era. On ‘This Is Hardcore’, they’ve begun, in places, to neglect hooks and lose accessibility, which results in a more challenging listen; but it’s an album worth putting effort into.

See, the subject matter of Pulp records has always looked at the shadier parts of life, things a lot of people would rather not think about, but before now, it was always taken from a more lighthearted, satirical angle. Here we’re confronted with bare-bones harsh truths, nothing dressed up, and it’s graphic and sometimes a little disturbing.

This is an album about young people, and worry about growing old is present in several songs. In ‘Dishes’ Jarvis compares himself to Jesus, who died at 33, and it should be offensive but it’s not. ‘Help the Aged’ is a highlight – it’s probably the most melodic, radio-friendly song here and it would almost have fit in on the last album, so it’s a brief respite from the album’s unfriendly demeanour. And is that… is that a Mellotron? I’m not completely sure but it sounds like one. (I have a minor obsession with the Mellotron. It’s as great a rock instrument as the electric guitar.)

The title track is not something you will ever, ever get used to. Everything I said in the introduction is multiplied by ten for this one song, with no imagery and no euphemisms but the kind of language that makes you also recoil from it, and it stays with you for a long time, not a hook whizzing round your head but an uncomfortable memory in the back of your mind.

Despite the fact that the songs actually have more instrumental sections than before, I feel like the band has become more lyrics-based than ever. Their CD insert booklets carry the message ‘Please do not read the lyrics while listening to the recordings’ and while I stick to that for the first couple of lessons, I think it’s worth doing, if only because it’s the only way you’ll pick up things like ‘I was having a whale of a time until your uncle Psychosis arrived’ and ‘When I close my eyes I can see you lowering yourself to my level.’

As the record goes on, the songs become more and more theatrical (see: ‘Seductive Barry’ ‘Glory Days’ and that ‘keeeeeep believing!’ hook in ‘Sylvia’) and I can almost see them as part of a musical. Especially the final track, ‘The Day After the Revolution’, which is overblown exactly like the last number of a Broadway show, and surprisingly positive considering what’s come before it, although not sickeningly so – it remains grounded with moments like ‘You know the answers but you get it wrong (just to confuse things.)’

The album ends with a single chord being held for ten minutes. Ten whole minutes. I find it hard to give this any kind of artistic meaning, but you should listen to it all the way through once, just so you can find the hidden whisper of ‘Goodbye’ partway through.

Yes, Pulp have definitely changed here, maybe permanently. They’re less restrained, taking more risks, and when you hear the line in ‘The Fear’ (the meta-song opener which perfectly captures the feeling  of loneliness): ‘This is the sound of someone losing the plot’ and relate it to the smash-hit success of ‘Different Class’ and ‘Common People’, you wonder how much of this is autobiographical.

Pulp: Different Class

Different Class 

Best song: Common People

Worst song: Live Bed Show if I have to pick

Grade: 7

I listened to this yesterday afternoon, and I already want to listen to it again. You’d think I’d be sick of it by now, but I’m not, it’s just that kind of album. It also might be one of the hookiest albums ever made… every song gets stuck in my head on a frequent basis, which doesn’t annoy me anywhere near as much as it should, because every song is good.

That’s something you don’t realise at first, though. The big single is the third track, Common People, which reached #2 in the UK, and it deserved to be huge. And the first time I heard the album, I was so blown away by this one song, that I wasn’t really able to appreciate everything that surrounds it. It’s only on subsequent listens that you come to the realisation, ‘Hey, Mis-Shapes is good too! Oh, and so’s Sorted for E’s and Wizz! And so’s… wait, you know what? There isn’t a bad song on here!’

So, what makes these songs so good? Apart from the great melodies, there’s a lot of variety – within every individual song are a lot of different textures; parts where the focus is Jarvis’ voice with very little backing, and parts where there’s a very thick layer of instruments all built up. The tracks are an excellent mix of the accessible (see: the fun, feel-good pop of ‘Disco 2000’) and the slightly more experimental (‘Feeling Called Love’, which is a good explanation of Pulp’s reputation as the artiest Britpop band).  And, it goes without saying, the lyrics, which are some of my all time favourites. A sample: ‘I can’t help it, I was dragged up/My favourite park’s a car park/Grass is something you smoke/Birds are something you shag.’

I chose ‘Live Bed Show’ as the worst song but I still think it’s great, with its smooth, gentle melody and warm feeling that opposes the sadness in its lyrics. But maybe it seems weaker because it comes directly before another ballad, ‘Something Changed’, which I prefer because of the obvious sincerity behind it and the way it messes around with timings – beginning ‘I wrote this song two hours before we met’, but then going on to describe things that happened after they met. So is it all inside his head, a crazy daydream, or does it really happen?

My version of this album has 12 different cover options – little cards that you can slot into the front of the lyrics sheet to create your own cover art. It’s a gimmick but a good one; I change it every time I listen. The covers all feature full-colour scenes with some or all of the band members present, but they’re in black and white. This relates to the idea of being outsiders, a theme that runs through the whole album, which is full of commentaries on other peoples’ lives, other peoples’ relationships, that the narrator is not quite involved in. Yet they still manage to be anthemic and uniting, bringing these oddballs together from ‘We don’t look the same as you, we don’t do the things you do/But we live round here too’ all the way to ‘It’s around the corner in Soho where other broken people go/Let’s go.’

I get a strange sense of righteous anger from these songs. They make me want to go out and change the world.

Pulp: His N Hers

His ‘N’ Hers (1994)

Best song: Pink Glove

Worst song: Someone Like the Moon

Grade: 5

When it comes to this album, I wish more than anything that I could go back and listen to it at the time it was released, judging it completely out of context. Because as it is, I can’t help but compare it to what came later. As good as much of this album is, most of the styles and elements here would then be improved on Different Class, making it difficult to truly judge the individual merits of this one.

That complaint out of the way, I actually enjoy most of it a lot. Jarvis Cocker’s lyrics are already pretty awesome, like on the biting imitation of an ambitionless thug that’s present in ‘Joyriders’ or the wonderful dream-related imagery in ‘Acrylic Afternoons’. But while most of the songs are very catchy, there isn’t one standout anthemic tune, and I also don’t find that the album has any kind of structure: a lot of the time it feels like the songs are arbitrarily placed, maybe by pulling names out of a hat.

For example, there’s a song halfway through, ‘Happy Endings’, that has the stereotypical bombastic feel of an album closer, with the swelling instruments and vocals and the empowering message Jarvis is trying to impart on the song’s subject, and I can’t help but think this would be perfectly placed as the second-to-last track on the album. It would feel like the culmination of all the songs to that point, but then when it was over, the real final song would start, reminding us that Pulp’s idea of relationships isn’t about happy endings at all. It’s far more seedy and shameful than that, it’s illicit affairs with the emphasis on sex rather than love.

That final song, ‘David’s Last Summer’, is the only track I feel is well placed, and it’s unique, without an equivalent on the next album. Most of the lyrics are spoken which creates an odd, effective feeling of separation between them and the music, except for the short choruses, which are sung, creating a rare harmony. It’s like the summer the lyrics talk about – nice, but far too short to last. And the title creeps me out, too. Why is it his last summer? What happens to him next?

It wasn’t easy to choose a ‘best song’ here as any of the singles and at least half of the album tracks could qualify, but eventually I went for ‘Pink Glove’ because it has the best hook out of all of them, it’s got a great ominous atmosphere, and the sheer emotion in Jarvis’ voice gets me every time.

‘His ‘N’ Hers’ is seriously overproduced, far too slick, every sound having gone through some sort of computer so none of it sounds quite real, and yet somehow, it works. Maybe it’s because everything the songs are about is so real. I know I’ve had relationships like these and some lines are so true they make me cringe. In short, this is an album full of contrasts, full of the unexpected.

(Also, I don’t know if other people have noticed this, but in ‘Babies’ there’s a line: ‘And she came round four/And she was with some kid called David’ – same David as the one in ‘David’s Last Summer’?)