Jarvis Cocker: “Further Complications”

(out of 5)

Former Pulp front man and tweed-jacket wearing, rock’n'roll professor, Jarvis Cocker, is back on the music scene with his sophomore solo effort, Further Complications. This album follows his terrific 2006 solo debut, Jarvis (aka The Jarvis Cocker Record). Further Complications reveals Cocker doing what he does best: crafting pop hooks that dig deep into the listener’s mind, and serving up lyrics which are as witty as they are intelligent. It’s been a long time since Cocker put out a middling record and this one is no different; teamed up with producer Steve Albini, Cocker turns in the hardest rocking set of his career in these eleven songs.

Cocker opens the record up with the title track in which he sets an existential tone for the entire album as he declares his need for complicating his life. And his life may seem a little more complicated since we last heard from him. Jarvis Cocker’s debut saw a slight change of subject matter for Cocker since he was a new family man at the time. Three years later, Jarvis is in the process of divorce and back to singing about his favorite subject: seducing women. However, Cocker isn’t the young man he once was and this certainly affects his approach.

Near the beginning of Further Complications, Jarvis leads his band into pure pop territory as they bang out the catchy, if not slightly ordinary, single “Angela” and the nearly wordless “Pilchard.” With these Cocker is showing us that he can still craft a guitar pop song better than almost anyone. It’s in “Leftovers,” a classic Cocker tune if there ever was one, that Jarvis reveals he still has his sights set on women in their twenties. In some of the wittiest lyrics Cocker has ever penned he sing-speaks about seducing a much younger woman: “I met her in the Museum of Paleontology/ And I make no bones about it/ I said ‘If you wish to study dinosaurs, I know a specimen whose interest is undoubted.’” Cocker then goes on to declare with ever-increasing volume that he wants to be her lover. It’s not merely the witty lyrics that elevate this song to greatness, but also the way in which Cocker combines charisma and self-deprecating humor and turns the song into an act of seduction. For those who want more of that self-deprecation, there’s an entire song devoted to it here in the hilarious “Caucasian Blues.”

If you are like me, you may find it a bit odd that this soon-to-be 46-year-old is singing about seducing women almost half his age. Yet, Cocker is not only a brilliant song writer, but a brilliant album crafter. He anticipates his listeners’ objections and follows “Leftovers” with another of the album’s best songs, “I Never Said I Was Deep” (which opens with the apt line: “I love your body ‘cos I’ve lost my mind”). Cocker loads this song with a soulful horn section that adds some real heft to it. Because of this song it’s difficult to tell exactly how much of this album is delivered with tongue firmly planted in cheek: all, some, or none? But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter too much; just sit back and enjoy Cocker’s perfect one-liners, and there’s a heap of them here. Yet, it’s not all about fun and games here, Cocker comes down for a more serious song with the nearly nine-minute closer, “You’re In My Eyes (Discosong).” Here, Cocker sings not about finding a new lady in the disco but hanging onto a meaningful relationship. It’s a tender moment, and one that casts a slightly different light on all that Jarvis has said before it.

Jarvis Cocker croons and shouts as well as he ever has on Further Complications. He proves himself to truly be a Ph.D in guitar pop and for any who are wanting to know how to combine pop hooks with clever lyrics, there’s no better teacher than Jarvis Cocker. He is in fine form here as he sets a new high in his own career and delivers what is sure to be one of the funniest, catchiest records of the year.

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Jarvis Cocker — “Leftovers”

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Jarvis Cocker
Further Complications
Rough Trade, 2009