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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. ANGELA |
| 2. PILCHARD |
| 3. LEFTOVERS |
| 4. HOMEWRECKER! |
| 5. HOLD STILL |
| 6. FUCKINGSONG |
| 7. CAUCASIAN BLUES |
| 8. SLUSH |
| 9. YOU'RE IN MY EYES (DISCOSONG) |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The pairing of Jarvis Cocker and Steve Albini--the producer of this second Cocker solo outing--is an interesting one. Though known more for his hard rock sound (Nirvana, The Pixies and The Auteurs), Albini has also helmed LPs by the likes of Low and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. On Further Complications he helps Cocker achieve a neat balance of tough-edged Brit-rock, electro pop and searing soul. Opening with the rattling title track, Cocker swaggers through the buzzing "Angela", the loping, krautrocky instrumental "Pilchard", the energetic, sax-led "Homewrecker!" and the punky "Caucasian Blues". These impressive upbeat missives are offset by wry ballads like "Leftovers" ('I met her in the Museum of Paleontology / and I make no bones about it') and "I Never Said I Was Deep". Mundane tracks like "Fuckingsong" let the album down, but they’re few and far between and in any case redeemed by the wonderful finale "You’re in My Eyes,", a tune that returns us to Pulp’s disco/funk obsessions. --Danny McNamara
Review
Few pop people continue to enthrall and beguile like Jarvis Cocker. He can flick effortlessly between highbrow and low lives with ease, from Pulp to Stars In Their Eyes with Radio 4, poetry, lectures, discos all sandwiched in between, and is currently the main reason many have given for growing a beard.
Since Pulp dissolved at the start of the decade, he'd been sorely missed, bar the tremendous Relaxed Muscle palaver, he'd only go as far as collaborations and writing before being relaunched as a solo turn with 2006's Jarvis Cocker Record, which majestically reasserted him as elder statesman figure. As a sort of Stephen Fry of indie, he was welcomed back with wide arms.
Now the follow-up, Further Complications arrives in a blaze of ROCK. Produced by Steve - Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Manics - Albini, the change is refreshing as it is a little odd. Albini being the master of cutting out extraneousness, takes Jarvis away from the mirrorballs and down towards a glammier moshpit. First single Angela sets the tone, strutting riffily about ''4.50 an hour/ complimentary shower''; opener and title track autobiographically details his birth and rise over something Polly Harvey might knock out along with the green issue-based Slush; the Hawkwindy krautrock of Pilchard snorts along superbly; I Never Said I Was Deep moods along more in vein with the Cockerisms of old; while closing highlight You're In My Eyes (Discosong) tells of a chap who sees the reflection of his lover in his eyes and doesn't want to close them in case she disappears. No really.
Further Complications may confuse anyone still expecting another Disco 2000 some 15 years on, but rewards are there upon each listen. The wit and humour are still intact among the rock shapes and beef, and whether he likes it or not, Jarvis still remains one the world's finest pop entities. Long may he confuse, delight and wonder. --Ian Wade
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mojo working,
By
This review is from: Further Complications (Audio CD)
After the marvellous, though melancholy 'Jarvis'which considered weighty topics such as fatherhood and globalisation, 'Further Complications' sees Mr Cocker back on familiar lyrical ground (sex,frustration, romanticism and poetic flights of fancy).
However, sonically it is quite a different affair- with the guitars turned up to '11' and some of the rawest, howling vocals Jarvis has done since 'This Is Hardcore'. But he hasn't lost his ear for a heart-wrenching chord change. 'Hold Still' and 'Slush' (written in response to his recent trip to the Arctic) are simply beautiful. 'There's even a Barry White moment on the closing track 'In My Eyes-Disco Song', which could have been horribly cheesy were it not for Jarvis' mellow vocals. The instrumental tracks such as Pilchard take a few listens, but after 25 years of songwriting, you've got to hand it to Jarvis Cocker for still daring to be different. 'Further Complications' may not sell by the bucketload, but I guarantee it will maintain your interest longer than most of the competition. Stand out tracks: 'Slush' 'I Never Said I Was Deep' 'Hold Still' 'Further Complications' 'Homewrecker'
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The British Pop Poet Laureate Triumphs Again!,
By
This review is from: Further Complications (Audio CD)
Being the British Pop Poet Laureate is a strange job. And whilst thankfully, The Jarv hasn't been appointed to write songs about royalty - for if he did, the first one would probably have a line about Charles being a tampon and Camilla having a crampon and Prince Harry, the Nazi - and all the other things we think but shouldn't say - he'd immediately resign. Or be hung.
The important thing is that Jarvis Cocker is still working - and not being rubbish at it. Whereas many contemporaries have drifted into lazy parody, Cocker is out there. Unlike Pulp, where the infusion of old-skool synths gave the music an instantly dated summer-of-1974 feel, here on the second record - "Further Complications" - Cocker goes for a different type of dating ; a throwback to an angry glam rock, built on Cro-Magnon guitar riffs and fuzzy, filthy bass. The album is simpler than Jarvis previous work ; in the way that Nick Cave's "Grinderman" was still, obviously, Nick Cave ; albeit gutteral, more primal. "Caucasian Blues" is a rampage; Jarvis pushes the limits of his blues to a shredded howl - or as much of one that Cocker can produce. Cocker is still in the gutter, still looking at the stars. The opening lines of "Fckingsong" encapsulate this : the musical version of Alex the Droog on his knees prostrate in front of the vision of desire, unable to touch. It's raw, eloquent, desire, the sound of a man who can articulate love but unable to experience it. The 17 year old who circles his love, but finds all their heart needs actually wants is an older lover with a job and a car. What the heart desires is Further Complications, the drama of passion and love. In many ways, this reminds of the Relaxed Muscle album Jarvis made, a set of sultry, sometimes obtuse songs, experiments from the template where Jarvis moves away from what you expect : "Pilchard" is a three minute instrumental romp with Jarvis breathing heavily over it. Sounds rubbish ; it's magnificently simple. "Homewrecker" sounds like a sex crazed cross of The Blues Brothers, James Brown, and British Repression.. It's still obviously Him, the core essence of his artistic identity stamped all over the record, but to me, nothing as obvious as "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time" from the 'Jarvis Cocker Record'. The album is bookended by the apt "Discosong", a hymn to the end of the night, the last dance, and with that, "Further Complications" disappears into the ether, a UFO ascending the heavens. It's not a bad trip to take, to explore Jarvis innerspace. Or, put it this way : You'll want to listen to this a lot more than the Oasis album.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank You Jarvis - Another Work of Art (Princess LaLa),
By
This review is from: Further Complications (Audio CD)
I have to say first of all congratulations Jarvis on a fantastic album, `Further Complications' is awesome. I swear I had it in my cd player for days and days; I couldn't stop playing it... lovely! There is real personality in this work. I love the divine `I Never Said I Was Deep' it's gorgeous and is followed nicely by the rocky extroverted `Homewrecker' but my favourite by far is `You're In My Eyes (Discosong)' I can barely believe how listenable this song is. WOW! Good-on-you Jarvis! Thank you very very much. X X X
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