Features

Jarvis Cocker, Pulp - Fringe Benefits 2

Clark Summers 12/11/2006

Autumn is well and truly upon us dear reader and I'm rather enjoying it! Some cracking gigs are looming on the horizon, leaves cover the grey city streets, the city is all lit-up and there's a veritable barrage of new albums from some of my favourite artists to get stuck into too. Without wishing to sound like a hippy, life is beautiful right now even if my throat feels like it's being tortured by tiny razor blades. The creme de la creme of these releases is undoubtedly the first ever solo album from Pulp's Jarvis Cocker. A stunning effort that combines Cocker's sharp wit with a plethora of spell-binding tunes it's certain to feature in the upper echelons of many a year end list including my own! My early favourite (from the album) is the punk-ish stomper 'Fat Children' but it's early days and I still need to take the whole thing in, I've always found in the past that Pulp's best albums need a couple of listens before they really hit the mark (that's why i'm such a huge admirer of the recently remastered 'This Is Hardcore'). Hidden away at the end of Jarvis is the gem-like secret track and iTunes download only single 'Running The World', an eloquent riposte to all the fakers, phonies, liars and cheats out there in the big wide world. It's a slow-build epic so pour yourself some tea and enjoy this beauty.

Jarvis Cocker- The c*nts Are Still Running the World.