Jarvis Cocker – I Never Said I Was Deep
Jarvis Cocker – Caucasian Blues
For his second proper solo release, Jarvis Cocker is clearly not playing around. This is not to say that he’s cleaned up his act at all, I simply mean that for a man that has rarely held anything back lyrically, he’s really pushed himself towards wild, reckless, abandon on Further Complications. In a similar fashion to Nick Cave’s Grinderman project, this record presents Cocker fronting an often tough, muscular and very rocking group, in nice contrast to the largely smooth and demure affair that was his first solo release. The first single “Angela” roars with garage fuzz, as do the aptly titled “Fucking Song,” the lyrically deplorable (and I mean that in the best possible way) “Caucasian Blues,” the title track, “Homewrecker,” (which musically sounds like it could have been borne out of an alternate session for the Stooges Funhouse record, minus the Asheton wall of sound, RIP) and the mostly instrumental “Pilchard” which sounds like it would make for a killer opening live show number. (FYI Jarvis comes to LA July 27th!)
Mr. Cocker drops it down a notch in characteristically sardonic fashion on “Hold Still,” “Leftovers” (my second favorite song which also contains my second favorite line on the album, “He says that he wants to make love to you! Well, instead of to, shouldn’t that be with??!”) and “Slush.” The closer is what I think might be a completely clubby, sincere and unsarcastic love song, “You’re in My Eyes (Discosong)” which seems completely out of step (somewhat hard to take Jarv at his word when it comes to love after all the literal defilement of the previous 40 minutes) with the rest of the record but is a welcome change of pace musically and lyrically.
However, the crown jewel of this set, and a strong contender for “Song of the Year” has to be “I Never Said I Was Deep.” In my opinion, this quite possibly could be the best song of Jarv’s career, dropping Pulp’s “Help The Aged” from the top of the heap. This may very well be the song that they play at Jarv’s funeral, it’s a perfect crystallization of his entire ethos and after at least two dozen plays, it still almost has me in tears every time. The chorus says it all:
I never said I was deep,
But I am profoundly shallow,
My lack of knowledge is vast,
and my horizons are narrow.
I never said I was deep,
I never said that I was clever,
And if you’re waiting to find,
what’s going on in mind,
you could be waiting forever, for ever and ever.
That my friends, is bloody brilliant…