Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 13/10/06
Label: Rough Trade

Considering Cyril Connolly's declaration that "there is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hallway," Cockerphiles might have feared that marriage and fatherhood would kill Jarvis's creative appetite completely. In fact, since Pulp's demise, the Polyester-clad prince of Britpop has kept his hand in very creditably: recording with grubby electro-glam exponents Relaxed Muscle; playing a cameo role in "Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire" (as a member of fictitious band The Wyrd Sisters); releasing angry, download-only single "(C**ts Are Still) Running The World"; and writing for both Nancy Sinatra and (more recently) Charlotte Gainsbourg.

It's Cocker's solo debut, however, which has inevitably piqued serious interest. In these days of Arctic Monkeys and Plan B, what - if anything - might one of the most perspicacious cultural commentators from the post-Smiths era of British pop have to say? Will he still be in fine sardonic fettle or have domesticity and (whisper it) maturity perhaps weakened his distinctive voice? Crucially, will the new tunes be any cop?

Well, "Jarvis" is an undeniably odd fish. It presents more like the work of several different auteurs than of one established auteur in need of fresh air; the loose, kick-around approach (the LP was recorded in just 13 days, with guitarist Richard Hawley, former Pulp man Steve Mackey on bass and drummer Ross Orton from Fat Truckers) might suit some, but Pulp's songs were always so well cut and neatly turned out that here, what should sound relaxed often just sounds a bit sloppy; and "Jarvis" is a collection of 13 individual songs, rather than an album with cohesive impact.

There are several curios in the piece. "Stormy Weather" is a shaggy homage to Big Star (who knew Cocker was such a fan?) that chugs along in affable enough, if underwhelming fashion, but since Teenage Fanclub spent a decade in obeisance, it's hard to see the point. Tart political comment aside ("they want our way of life / well, they can take mine any time they like"), "From A To I" could almost have been lifted from The Bluetones' back catalogue and the strings-bedecked "Big Julie" recalls no one so much as Damien Rice. Brickbats thus hurled.

The bouquets? The album may take half a dozen tracks to settle in but, when it does (with the terrific, kick-ass "Fat Children"), it shifts several crucial gears in seconds. Cocker's genuinely empathetic fire glows still, sparking into both disgust (on "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time" - "some skinny bitch walks by in some hotpants / And he's running out the door") and fury ("It's the ideal way to order the world / F*ck the morals - does it make any money?"), as on hidden track "(C*nts Are Still) Running The World". Closer "Quantum Theory" is an epic, orchestral sweep across the cosmos with a Scott Walker-toned gesture and provides the suitably impressive full stop for a solo debut.

Travelling alone, without a map, makes for an unpredictable journey and "Jarvis" is necessarily the sound of a creative identity in flux. Those creative shakes will surely pass.

    by Sharon O'Connell