According to Jarvis Cocker, cunts are still running the world. So the former Pulp frontman hasn’t lost any of the rebelliousness that once nudged him to moon Michael Jackson and create an eyebrow-raising alter-ego – but for all his controversy, solo debut Jarvis is a blandly mixed bag of jams and ballads. His hard-won fame has led Cocker into a mid-life musical crisis, and he’s opted for an album over an expensive sports car.
Jarvis plunges right in with the upbeat, tongue-in-cheek “”Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time,”” originally written for Nancy Sinatra and loaded with comical musings like, “”And you wonder what he’s waiting for / Oh, then some skinny bitch walks by in some hot pants,”” all to a heavy synth beat. From here, the peppering of catchy wit – as on killer-chub anthem “”Fat Children,”” a glib judgment of society and miscreant youth that wails, “”Oh, the parents are the problem / Giving birth to maggots without the sense to become flies!”” – successfully revives the glories of ’80s punk rock, dredging up some slamming electric guitar and well-timed “”Oh oh ohs!””
Jarvis is a regular Jekyll and Hyde scenario: While its efforts to revive smart-yet-classic rock in the modern scene are respectable, it’s often as stifling in its repetitive repertoire as quantum physics at 8 a.m. – as when “”Everything is gonna be all right”” is strung out seven times after a four-and-a-half-minute chorus of meek violins on “”Quantum.”” But if you can get past Cocker’s limited vocal range and a scattering of numbing lulls, the hauntingly drowsy guitar of “”Tonight”” or the Lennon-resurrecting cool of “”Running the World”” just might make up for lost traction.
