I can’t remember when I joined the Jarvis Cocker fan club, all I know is that when I opened the mail and found this album I wanted to jump up and down with excitement and all I could think was ‘god I love Jarvis Cocker!’.
Further Complications is Jarvis’ second solo album and was recorded with Steve Albini in Chicago. An interesting match up and one I quite like, Shellac and Jarvis…what a strange beast that would be…
Of course it is only Albini’s production skills at work on this album and while I’m no expert on these things, it sounds pretty damn good to me. In saying that, nobody buys a Jarvis record based on production. It’s the man himself - his voice, lyrics, and above all, humour.
This is a really fun record and actually has quite a bit of musical variety, more than I expected. I especially like: “Pilchard” which is a largely instrumental track bar the occasional repetition of ‘Oh’ and ‘You Pilchard’, “Angela” cracks me up because that’s my name!, “Leftovers” for it’s Pulpishness, “I never said it was deep” need I say more, “Hold Still” is lovely and slow, “Homewrecker” not so much - too much saxophone for me, plus it reminds me of the old batman theme that went “nana nana nana nana nana Batman!”.
I think any Jarvis fan will really like this album, if you’re on the cusp though, I’m not sure this record would convert you. If you've never ventured into the realm of Jarvis, try it, go on, you may want to start with a bit of Pulp first though.
Reading the lyrics is recommended as is visiting Jarviscocker.net.
AW
