Jarvis Cocker

After Pulp folded, Jarvis Cocker took a few years off to raise a family and collaborate with cult artists like Jane Birkin. His first solo album is a stunner that mixes the doomy glam of his old band with a twisted '70s singer-songwriter vibe. "Black Magic," "Big Julie," "I Will Kill Again" and "Fat Children" show his depth and range (not to mention his Morrissey-like combination of sadness and morbid humor). This U.S. release deletes two cuts from the U.K. edition: "Quantum Theory" and the biting "Running the World" (from the Children of Men soundtrack).

Of all the boho songwriters who hit it semi-big in the Nineties boom years, Pulp's Jarvis
Cocker was the one with the biggest heart, the bitchiest lips and the swooniest tunes,
which is why his flamboyant thrift-store Casanova legend burns on while his peers gather
dust. On his first solo album, Jarvis, he shakes off his early-century doldrums with his finest
batch of songs since This Is Hardcore. The songs are languid Eurotrash ballads, st... More >